THE FEIRCE FUZZBALL REBORN!
by White-Oleaders-Back
Summary: Lookie here, stick it in your pointy ear, I'VE GOTTEN APPROVAL TO REMAKE THIS FROM THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR! Because I am her, really. One of a favourite of many, this FF8 story is about three blade and gun loving people as they struggle through the mind of on
1. The Feirce Fuzzball and The Zany Blonde

(I do not own FF8, Yahoo, that Alphabet song, nor Inuyasha's Kirara. In fact, only Saranie and Rira. If you know this, our brain will thank you! Tttaaaannnnkkk yooouuu...) Squall stared absent-mindedly around the ballroom.  
  
'Another ball, more SeeDs, and more attitude...' he thought, sighing and looking down. Rinoa was gone, off with Nida after that stupid fight at Christmas last year. What? He didn't want to wear a suit, so he blew her off. But, go off and cheat on him? Whatever...  
  
He took his eyes away from watching Selphie trot all over Irvine's feet out on the dance floor, long enough to check the time his watch said. Cid had 'urgently reported' to him that he needed to be to his office to meet somebody he'd be working with for a while at 12:30 am sharp. Why the hell that time? The world may never know...  
  
His watch read 11:54. Ugh. Okay, so maybe all the other students had wandered off to their dorms, or the couples off to shadier places, but that still meant at least a half an hour left of having to stay up and watch his comrades have their little share of tired fun. Selphie and Irvine were dancing together, or more Selphie running in circles around Irvine's legs. Zell was watching from a stool nearby, twirling back and forth, giggling like a little girl with gossip from the little share of wine coolers that he could get his hands on. Quistis stood in the corner, the shady dog look in her eye as she chatted slowly with Xu, killing the time herself, as she wasn't eager to have to sleep without knowing the details of the groups next mission. And Seifer... Seifer... Squall watched his new friend as he stomped, rather with the childish happiness, on the balloons that still bobbed around on the floor.  
  
Seifer was a alone now. Fuijin and Raijin, both had mysteriously disappeared as bull leaves a china shop. A wreck. It was barely two years after the whole thing with Ultimecia, but they simply patted the blonde on his head and chirped "we really have some important matters to attend with", and flew the coop. Why then? Squall had always wondered. Still, Seifer, a SeeD now, out of pity for the guy, was part of Squall's team. And each and every one of his comrades stayed awake, by his side, in the dreary summer night.  
  
"Hey, guys, I'm gonna make like a baby and head out... Wander around a bit..." Squall yawned to his friends, who merely all waved their hands drowsily and continued with their cozy habits.  
  
**  
  
Squall never got far from the Quad.  
  
The soft, yet firm footsteps of the female figure of a shadow approached him as he neared the fountain, only the pale ghostly face and blonde hair gleaming revealed.  
  
Green eyes... Beautiful, dazzling, and yet malevolent. "Yo, dorkusamorkus. Where can I find... 'kid'? Is that the head honcho of this place's real name?! Kid?! Hah at yahoo dot com!" the female grabbed her stomach, laughing.  
  
Why was this tomboy straight up out of the hood voiced white girl ever laughing at Cid! The way she was dressed, boy, if she had a mirror she'd literally split her sides. With sleeves made out of panty hose dark tan material, along with leggings of the same material, the dark brown 80's ankle high heel shoes, the black tight stretch pants, black with chained lining heavy looking shirt, dark brown gloves, the dark brown trench coat, and the white laced black collar, she really didn't go far past freak on the charts.  
  
"Hey, you going to answer me?" the girl snapped, furrowing her brows.  
  
Squall opened his mouth "his name, for one, is 'sid'. Cid. Not kid. You have pronunciation problems."  
  
"Yuppers! I sue doo!" she grinned; her smile far more happy than her clothes would give the illusion of her personality.  
  
Squall raised his eyebrow, sighing and shaking his head "his office... is at the top floor of the elevator... Why?"  
  
"None ya" she shrugged, turning towards the elevators before stopping to stare at him "by the way... You are one huge song after the next. You jam?"  
  
"... Jam?"  
  
"Have a band, dork."  
  
"No... Are you saying I look and act unkempt, wild, and evil like you?"  
  
"Yeah, looks that way. Looks are deceiving though..."  
  
"Why you little twit!"  
  
She stopped, turning and smiling. She dug her hands in her coat, pulling out to black handles with shiny metallic figures of phoenix's on the sides, like his own Gunblades had lions. At the end of these two handles, two short yet streaming reflections in the black of the hall...  
  
'GUNBLADES!' Squall gasped in the excitement, quickly pulling out his own Gunblade as the girl lunged at him, swinging her two steel hell minions wildly, while... humming?  
  
He managed to advert her attack and shove her off into the opposite direction at a right angle. She fell onto the ground with a hard thud, sliding backwards on the soles of her shoes. The blades she had in her hand... he knew... were too small for Gunblades... The blades were... melted off?  
  
"A B C, 1 2 3, you and me... dum de dum..." the girl smiled maniacly, shifting her weight back and forth onto different feet as she easily danced.  
  
"Are you- singing during a fight?!" Squall's eyes widened in amazement. Even Rinoa was more serious than this girl!  
  
"Yup..." the girl's head lowered slightly as she made a slight noise, and a wall of flame towered up in front of Squall.  
  
"... Firaga! But... Manipulated? Into a form?" Squall took a step back, his eyes wide "... what are you!?"  
  
He was suddenly cut short, as the girl rammed through the wall of flame, landing on Squall with a thud. He heard a loud roar, too. Everything blacked out, yet he could still hear. The girl was on top of him, just gained a good three hundred lbs. She whispered softly in her valiant cackling "... Bring it on again sometimes little boy... You survived my kitty cat."  
  
He opened his eyes lightly, to stare at white fur. Off white, light tan, light yellow, creamy fur. Above that, black rings...  
  
A giant leg. A huge cat leg. The cat, or saber toothed white tiger with black rings on her legs and flaming tipped tails. Pink eyes, too. Atop the cat, none other than the witch face that just demolished him. He let his head fall back, and suddenly all weight was gone from him. He sat up again, regaining sight, and watching the young woman trot off to the elevator.  
  
**  
  
Great, beat down by a pretty face and a bad attitude.  
  
Squall rubbed the back of his head, huffing and puffing as the elevator neared the top. Quistis's bandages had taken a long time, as she seemed so worried about him. He had the slightest suspicion that she was back on track with that crush thing. Though, he wondered why, as she topped off Rinoa in looks more than the moon over shined the stars.  
  
He easily stepped out of the elevator, and into the office.  
  
Zell had taken a liking to mocking him, as did Irvine. Yet, Seifer seemed very interested. Squall had told him that this girl was nothing like his type, not sweet and innocent and easy to take control of, and yet Almasy was intent on getting as much information as possible. Then again, was it all a dream? Possibly, had he drunk too much and passed out on the floor, after all, cat's the size of large vans don't really exist.  
  
He stepped next to the guest chair, Cid was eagerly watching the outside night with a straight expression.  
  
"Where is he? My new client?"  
  
"She, Squall, she."  
  
"She, eh?" Squall smiled. His last client was a babe, and he was able to drop her when he was done. Maybe...  
  
"Uhh..." Cid was staring at the chair, which was empty.  
  
Squall turned, then frowned. Great. Zell's going to come out in a dress, or more dressed like Rinoa, pretend to hang on him, and ask him to dance. A joke. Then...  
  
"YOW!" Squall jumped up, turning quick enough to see a flash of black behind him. Something was rubbing against his back.  
  
"Ooo..." came a soft, yet scratchy cat voice, familiar.  
  
"Squall, meet miss Saranie. She is your client" Cid laughed, as Squall turned to see the same blonde headed green eyed female that had beaten him up, rubbing her cheek on the collar of his jacket.  
  
"So... fluffy..." she moaned, giggling.  
  
'While your at it meet Mr. Fist...' Squall thought, yet through gritted teeth said "hell-o..."  
  
**  
  
"Umm... So..." Selphie said slowly, and unhappily, her eyes shut as she crossed her arms.  
  
Irvine and Zell had done nothing but watch every move of this new employer, who in fact was a year younger than them. They all sat in the train car, Saranie reading a magazine labeled "Buddhism for Dummies" bored, Squall standing behind her with the doing all I can to withstand this person expression, Seifer leaning against the other end of the couch, Zell and Irvine in chairs opposite of the three irregular people, Selphie angrily behind Irvine, and Quistis sitting next to her.  
  
"Tell me, Squallio, what are these squiggly things?"  
  
Squall grunted. This girl had done nothing but pester him, and yet, she was funny, in a stupid way. Seifer hadn't removed his eyes either.  
  
"Words, you demented sign of cuteness. Now, tell us our mission."  
  
"Give me a kiss."  
  
"I'd rather kiss your cat."  
  
The small black and cream with pink eyes kitten, which had previously been the tiger, mewed from it's perch on Saranie's shoulder.  
  
"Rira? My fluffy thing, Rira? Oh, your not nice"  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"Knock knock."  
  
"Whose there?"  
  
"Go screw yourself."  
  
"Har har."  
  
She had done nothing but drag on him, ask him kiss her, hug her, and go screw himself. She also teased Zell and Irvine, too. She'd lean over, with that ridiculous sucker in her mouth and slurp on it, which must have taken a few years off of Irvine's life. The girl's, well, by Saranie hanging on Squall and teasing Irvine into actually to the point of being on his knees and begging, Quistis and Selphie had had their share of the blonde.  
  
"Otay, oatsay" Saranie sighed after a few minutes of stare down from the brunette male before her "Seif, come 'ear."  
  
Squall nearly cracked up. Seifer, taking orders from a stranger that's nearly as annoying as Rinoa had been?  
  
"Okay, Sara..." Seifer stood up straight, walking over to her and sitting down next to her.  
  
"Wh- what?! HUH?!" Squall said, confused.  
  
"Der, Saranie ALMASY!" Saranie sighed, shaking her head.  
  
"That's your last name? Huh, wha-?"  
  
"Squall, I'm Sara's brother" Seifer shrugged.  
  
**  
  
"Wait... Let me get this straight... We're supposed to destroy yet another sorceress?" Quistis stood with her mouth agape, shoulders dropped. Seifer is Sara's brother, and now Sara exclaims that they are from a different planet. Sure her second choice was different, yet an alien? She thought they'd be icky... Not, hot...  
  
"Yes. Urone, the planet where... me and Seifer are from, it's... Under a tiny dictatorship. You see, this sorceress has decided that she rules our planet now, and a lot of people have decided she does too. But, there's a tiny little rebellion, and I'm the head" Saranie said, a serious look entering her eyes.  
  
"Hah, you're the head? I'm willing to suppose the rebellion is always running into walls?" Squall pushed in, grinning.  
  
"Look. Urone is in trouble. And the rebellion is mostly full of scared people that don't want change, and think that the strong people of the rebellion will protect them. I know that they're wrong, but it's nice to be able to come through with a promise. I cannot take down Cennaire, the sorceress, by myself. That's why I need you" Saranie said, crossing her legs and leaning back.  
  
"Okay, so it's in out and we're done?" Zell said, standing up.  
  
"That's what she said... Or, if you do manage to win her, will say in a disappointed tone." Irvine cracked, laughing as Zell didn't seem to get the joke.  
  
"No... You see, there's more. I need to tell you about Cennaire..." she turned to Seifer directly "you can't come."  
  
"What?! Why not!?"  
  
"It's Cennaire... she's..."  
  
"IT'S BECAUSE I WAS A KNIGHT, HUH?!"  
  
"No! It's because... Cennaire is only two years old..."  
  
"I'm good with kids. Especially when it comes to killing them."  
  
"No! She's... Ultimecia's daughter... and, you know what happened two years ago between you and Ultimecia that might lead to a little bundle of hell..."  
  
"Are you... saying?..."  
  
"Yes. You can't come, because I can't trust you won't bungle this up because she's your kid. Seifer, she'll kill our-"  
  
"I DON'T CARE WHAT SHE DOES TO THAT PLANET WE'RE HERE!" the train pulled to a stop, and Seifer stood up, slinking off.  
  
** "A... Space station?" Zell stared in amazement at the new dome of white building in front of them.  
  
"Not any. Newly built. You guys need to watch the news more." Saranie said, getting out of the rental car easily, her only bag being her little kitten.  
  
"I watched the news. It's called Galbadia air station, though." Quistis piped in, starting to like this new girl.  
  
"That's because it's for transportation of other planets. Spaceships on Urone called Air Ships, and they travel all throughout the universe, not just above the planet."  
  
"Your very educated in other planets, Saranie."  
  
"I know... I'm a little nerdy if I get serious."  
  
Squall lagged behind, his head down. Seifer... what's wrong with you? Ultimecia?! Ugh! That's just... wrong...  
  
**  
  
The ship was huge. At least, for just a teenage girl's car. It was about as big as the Ragnarok itself, shaped like what kind of looked like a phoenix itself, with red and gold paint. It was complete with the essentials, a planning room, a control room, a storage room, something like a pilot's seat except it was actually smaller than the Ragnarok's, a loading dock, and even four spacious bedrooms, a very large pent house sized den with floor to ceiling windows, and even a tiny little play room of scratching posts, a kitty bed the size of an above ground pool, a real large above ground pool, and balls and actual basketball hoops for Saranie's spoiled Rira.  
  
Irvine leaned over the metal bar in the den, staring into the outside space of the huge floor to ceiling window, one arm slowly sneaking around the youngest known Almasy.  
  
"So... How did you get an air ship this big?"  
  
She was in the middle of smacking his hand, but stopped when she heard his question. Instead, she allowed him to hold her, as long as she didn't answer that question.  
  
Zell pondered in, tailing the three long tails of the tiny rat sized kitten bouncing around in front of him.  
  
'Yes!' Saranie thought, sighing and easing out of Irvine's hand in relief, turning to open up her arms as the little white ball of fluff leapt onto her chest and mewed.  
  
Zell rubbed the back of his head, a slight glare in his eyes at Irvine. Irvine got all of the girl's, courted Selphie, got Quistis's attention, and even rubbed against Rinoa a time or two. No, not to this girl, the one that he might actually have a chance with, Zell wasn't about to allow himself to appear like that thing seeming to brew between Squall and Seifer.  
  
"So... Umm... Can you tell me more about are mission, Saranie?" Zell sat down on a cream colored couch, likely for Rira's fur blending, patting the seat next to him. Maybe, since Irvine was bored with hearing about deformed psychotic women, he'd leave, and Zell could make his move...  
  
No. Irvine quickly caught on. He trotted over, sitting on the arm of the couch "yes, please..."  
  
Saranie frowned. 'Who do these guys think they're dealing with? Some little innocent inexperienced virgin? Oh no... Hmm... I think I might be able to use this to my advantage...' she thought, the frown turning into an evil smile.  
  
She walked over, sitting down between both men and stroking the wide-eyed feline in her arms "Well... Umm... Cennaire is gorgeous really. She looks twenty, as a bloodline sorceress grows a bit faster. Long brown hair, shining emerald eyes... Yet the biggest rack you'd ever see..."  
  
Irvine became suddenly interested, yet Zell didn't look very moved by the description. 'So... Zell, he's pretty got his eyes set and unwavering... Yet, this Irvine is scaring me... a real want to be player...' Saranie thought, shifting towards Zell and running her hand up his leg, pressing her chest on him "so...something else?"  
  
"Will you go for a little walk with me? On a tour?" Irvine stood up, rage filling him as she caressed Zell's leg.  
  
Zell's blush and amazement stopped as he glanced up at Irvine, frowning "um... Actually, I think me and Saranie were going to go off for a little bit for a while..."  
  
'Hah! Yes! The man may be the head, but the woman's the neck, and the head needs the neck to turn' Saranie nearly laughed "umm... Irvine, I'm sorry, but... your not my... Well, no. Sure, I'll go on a tour with you. Zell, how about you play with Rira for a while? She seems to like you."  
  
"But..." Zell said, his eyes shocked. Saranie smiled, leaning over and batting her eyelashes "please? Pretty, please?"  
  
"Alright..." Zell muttered, taking the kitten from Saranie gruffly and slinking off.  
  
Saranie frowned. She felt a little bad for the guy, but of course she was just really doing this to tease their horny selves. Yet, she was a little horny herself, and Irvine was the fastest relief...  
  
**  
  
"So... You've known Seifer for all these years?" Saranie leaned forward over the table towards Irvine, smiling slightly. They had finally arrived at her home planet, Urone, and were in the tiny town on the outskirts of the desert air station, Bareo. The town itself was actually quite pretty, as it was made of marble and over flowed with water from an underground supply.  
  
They sat in a small restaurant, and the night sky was quite pretty. It was a romantic sight, actually. The two hadn't dressed up or anything, and in fact Irvine was just checking out the little eye candy he can get from the undid chains in Saranie's strange shirt she did for a tease, and Saranie would rather have a scar faced brunette to pester sitting across from her and was actually just here because she had been hungry and a little broke at the moment.  
  
"Yeah... We were all in the same orphanage... but, please forgive me, I cannot recall such a beautiful ray of light as yourself at that orphanage..."  
  
"Because..." she looked down, sighing "I was adopted when I was three... By, a group of ranchers. Then, they moved to Urone... And while at Urone... I stumbled across my real parents... It was very hard, as Matron lied to us about our parents. She said they wee burned up in a fire... yet, actually, we were lost in a plane crash and separated from our parents. When I found our real parents, I went back to tell Seifer... He was so happy, he had so much faith in Matron, that I couldn't crush that... I love Seifer, I should have told him, but at that same time, I myself wanted to murder Matron for using us, he might have actually went through with killing her if he knew... so, he still doesn't..." she leaned over, placing her hands over his "please... when you see Seifer again... don't tell him, and never let him know..."  
  
Irvine sighed, frowning and leaning back, when suddenly an idea popped into his head "I won't, but I need a little payment for not..."  
  
He leaned over, grabbing head and kissing her lips softly. She jerked away from the move of affection, the kiss above the table, and the little bit of movement under the table.  
  
"Look, Irvine, I only went out with you because I'm hungry, and a little uh... horny..."  
  
Irvine smiled greatly "so, heading to a hotel or back to the ship?" "Hey, I ain't hiding anything from anybody. Besides, my ship..." she smiled, standing up.  
  
**  
  
Zell sighed, rubbing sweat off of his forehead while walking out of Rira's room "that cat sure can send a guy into a seizure..."  
  
'Though, it was worth something' Zell smiled, turning to walk down the hall. 'Now... The quickest way to a girl's bed, Irvine says, is through their heart. Be cute with the kitten, get cute with the girl...'  
  
"Hey, Zell!" Selphie bobbed up in down in the den, her arms crossed angrily "have you seen Irvine anywhere? I can't seem to find him..."  
  
"Nope. Been with that cat all day. Have you seen Saranie?"  
  
"Yeah... Her room. Went back there around an hour ago."  
  
"Thanks... good searching for Kinneas. Try a trashcan... He was getting touchy with miss Saranie earlier..." Zell quickly trotted off before Selphie could go Godzilla.  
  
Saranie's door wasn't plain. It looked regular, except, it had the darkest drear over it, hanging black. Though, that wasn't a turn off.  
  
Zell placed his hand on the knob, a little too excited to neither knock, nor hear the small moaning from inside. Instead, he just shoved open the door into the black room. He shouldn't have.  
  
She sat on his lap, her tongue feet down his throat and hands tearing at his shirt. His own hands were groping and tearing, one trying to remove the bra that sealed him off from fun, his other hand yanking off the other under garment from the legs that also sealed him from fun. The moans, it made Zell sick, and the pushing and shoving in different places. He thought this girl might be different enough not to let trash like Irvine in her. Well... at least he hadn't walked in on Squall and Seifer in such a position. 


	2. Old Faces: Brand Spankin New Attitude

"Koo koo kachoo?" Saranie sat cross-legged on the metal wall of rust in the middle of nowhere, listening to Zell foul mouth off about all the bad things Irvine did. What did he expect? She wasn't about to get too friendly with a guy who called one of her greatest talents 'Koo koo kachoo.'  
  
"And then he goes off and hounds this one girl that was in the classroom, and you know what? She fell-"  
  
"I DON'T CARE ZELL!!!" Saranie snapped, once and for all, finally just tuning him out. Why had she gotten herself into this? Beating up Leonhart and screwing Irvine were very wrong ideas, she decided. Now Squall wouldn't look at her for the shame, and she needed eye contact in order to give off orders, and the others were looking down on her for getting rowdy with Irvine. What did they want? Her business, for one, and for two, they were her workers...  
  
Now she was stuck in the middle of Tutok desert, her air ship broken down because Selphie tried to kill Irvin by shoving him into the control panel, and she was stuck with a group of people who hated her and a little gas station in the middle of nowhere with a fat mechanic, big haired waitress, and a group of filthy looking people. Zell hadn't shut up since walking in on her and Irvine, who mind you finished what they were doing anyways, and it wasn't even like she was dating Zell! How in the world did he own her? If she didn't need to sacrifice the whiney blonde's life, she'd kill him right here. Oh, yeah, and Rira liked him.  
  
"Well, what now?" she asked a pale-faced Squall, walking out of the station.  
  
"They said we have to order some parts, and then wait nearly a week because 'Earl' just went out on his weekly trip to the Ore city yesterday."  
  
"What?! Sheesh, I'll go get the damn parts! We don't have a week! If they find out we were with the rebellion, we'd have police crawling all over us and alls we could do b is run out into the desert and die that way!"  
  
"Well, it's your fault. If you could have stayed off of Irvine's lap, the control panel wouldn't be broken."  
  
"Whatever... Squall, do you remember when we fought? What helped me win?"  
  
"Umm... yeah... it was like a giant sized Rira..."  
  
"Well" Saranie picked up her kitten from her sleeping post on the ground, tossing her in the air "do it, Rira!"  
  
The tiny kitten's tails steamed as it enlarged, and then burst into flame when the final stage of the evolution emerged, the kitten now the size of a van "Like my kitty?"  
  
**  
  
'Great...' Squall thought 'great. Now I'm on the back of a giant cat, behind an annoying woman, off to get parts on an alien planet! What's wrong with me?'  
  
He was nearly sixty feet into the air, over the desolate warm ground of the desert, the sun slowly going down around him. Below him, the warm fur of the flaming tiger, and in front of him the black clothed and golden haired Saranie. His arms were wrapped around her waist, and he wasn't really enjoying it as she kept sitting up higher or bending down so the he was touching body parts he didn't want to touch.  
  
"Look, when will we be to this Ore?" He asked, getting annoyed by her moaning whenever he drew closer to her to escape the wag of the flaming fans behind him.  
  
"Sun up, really. It takes a long time to get there in an air ship, even longer when Rira is nearly six miles slower and needs to stop and drink plenty of times."  
  
"Yay... and back just as long?"  
  
"No. We'll rent a car while there. That way we won't have to stop so often and we can go a bit faster. But, we'll have to stay overnight in Ore..."  
  
"What?!" he moaned "I forgot my gil!"  
  
"I don't have enough for separate rooms in a hotel, Squall..." Saranie sighed.  
  
"No... I'm not going to be with you Saranie. Not just in a hotel room. I'm not going to do you like Irvine, I'm not going to hang on you like Zell, I'm not going to love you."  
  
"I'm just playing with you, idiot. I'm not trying to be with you. I can see you got the hots for Seifer, and well... Though I know Seifer's not a homo, but you can give it a shot."  
  
"I'm not after your brother!"  
  
"Sure... And I'm fuzzy McGee. Now, if not, then how about I strip down to underwear and you and I have a little fun when we get to Ore?"  
  
"You just said you're not after me!!!"  
  
"I did, but hey why not a little fun?"  
  
"Because I'm no pervert!"  
  
**  
  
"Here we are, the lovely Ore... Bigger than Delling, smaller than Esther, yet the smallest city in Urone" Saranie giggled, as Rira glided down onto the ground in front of miles of huge buildings, all in the shade of gold and blue, so much so that it looked like a SeeD uniform. Noises of cars, streetlights, and the snappy up to beat music of the streets in a city. The single huge street ran through like a Vegas strip, complete with smaller streets snaking around the buildings to create the streets of Ore. A lot of the cars were the same, Squall noticed, but he also noticed a young girl and boy speeding out of the city past them in what looked like a hovering bat, with the head of an engine. The people in Ore looked strange, too. Dark skinned people with black hair that looked like half giants roamed the streets easily, blending in with the crowd easily. There were soft faced yet bright eyed with the silent yet menacing hunted look people, with gray and green shiny hair and wearing the weirdest of clothes, such as purple cloth like skirt's and bras, sandals, and fur cuffs. Then there were the kindly normal looking people, with the worn away skin from being in the sun and working, wearing tan and black clothes only. Then, last but not least, trailing hear and there throughout the streets, attracting Squall's attention the most, were people that looked like Saranie and Seifer. The straight faces, the irregular shiny hair, the tiny eyes, and the evil sneering look.  
  
"Well, come on... we gotta find that shop..." Saranie said, Rira turning into a kitten and hopping onto her shoulder.  
  
As the three walked through the city, Squall was amazed at the cone shaped buildings, tiny flat one story concrete homes, and things harder to describe. He noticed that Saranie wasn't the only Urone citizen that liked pets, too. At the sides of countless women, were some the strangest looking dogs he had ever seen. Some stood tall, with long and nearly six flowing red tails, and had a fox like look. Others were short, with mice like faces and lion like manes. The men seemed to have a different interest in pets, though. Huge raven like bird's perched on the shoulders of the more shady like people. The out and the open punk teens seemed to take a liking to cat like dogs, as he spotted one that stood to the knees with the body of the dog yet the face like a soft Siamese cat.  
  
"Come on... There's something I need to do" she turned down a corner, grabbing Squall's shoulder and pulling him into a darker street. The homes were poorly lighted, no shops, and little windows. She stopped at the end, in front of an apartment building, and rang a bell with a worn away name next to it.  
  
"Yes...?" there came the soft voice of a young woman inside, sounding young yet covered up to sound old.  
  
"It's me, Sara. Open up."  
  
The strong steel doors of the apartment swung open, and for the first time Squall noticed that the apartment's windows were boarded up, and graffiti. It looked abandoned, or run down at least.  
  
Saranie slowly led Squall through poorly lit hallways, dark stairways, yet all nicely furnished and had the warm feeling.  
  
"Where are we going?" he asked slowly, timid.  
  
"Up. You'll see when we get there," she said as they reached the last landing.  
  
"Spill it," he snapped, as she led him towards the end of the hall.  
  
"Look, Squall. Calm down, trust me on this one, I know what I'm doing," she sighed.  
  
He grabbed her wrists, pushing her against the wall and holding her there "you set me up didn't you!?" he yelled, leaning on her, a little more in some places.  
  
"Squall?... Wow, you and Saranie? That's a couple that would make some cute kids..." came a familiar, soft and giggling voice.  
  
Squall spun around, staring at the one and only Sis.  
  
**  
  
"I told you to trust me, but nooo, you gotta go and sexually harass me!" Saranie snapped, crossing her arms and leaning back in the tiny ragged couch and shutting her eyes.  
  
"I told you, I wasn't harassing you!"  
  
"Not that I didn't enjoy it..." she turned to the brunette sitting next to her, sliding her hand in between his legs.  
  
He nearly fell off the couch, trying to get away "touch that and die!"  
  
Ellone laughed, shaking her head "you two were meant for each other"  
  
Squall snapped "SHUT UP!!!"  
  
"Hey, want to here a dirty joke?"  
  
"Eh?"  
  
"Pig rolled in the mud!" Saranie giggled like a little girl, falling over.  
  
Squall rolled his eyes, turning back to Sis "so... I thought you were on a vacation?"  
  
"I was. On Urone. When, suddenly, I encountered Saranie here! She told me about this evil witch whom was taking over poor Urone. Well, I couldn't help but join in on the rebellion with an old friend..." "Yeah... Irvine... told me about how Seifer and Sara were separated..."  
  
"HE WHAT!? I asked him not to!!!" Saranie leapt up, wide eyed.  
  
"We asked you to not get personal. What if you got pregnant?" Squall asked, narrowing his eyes.  
  
"Then you'd be out of luck for the next nine months" she grinned.  
  
Ellone laughed slightly "well, anyways, while in the rebellion I met two old acquaintances..."  
  
"Really? Who?"  
  
There came a knock on the door, rather loud, and in walked two abandoners with a purpose...  
  
**  
  
The female wore a red and black flannel jacket shirt with a dark lavender undershirt, short shorts, dark brown hiker boots with long socks, and a pair of sun glasses, blending in perfectly with a greasy mechanic scenario. The male wore green army over shirt and was bare-chested, with dark camouflage pants and dark brown heavy looking steel tipped boots. One was gray haired, with an eye-patch and smug victory looking face, the other dark skinned and muscular.  
  
"Raijin! Fuijin!!!?" Squall stared absent-mindedly at the two, and the two smiled a greeting to Saranie.  
  
"So, the hell minion has returned with the brunette of steel... Where's the blonde that wont stand still, the perverted red head, the annoying brown head, and the other blonde that knows it all?" Raijin asked, smiling slightly.  
  
"Down the hell's Jiffy Lube in the desert. I got too cozy with the pervert and the brown head decided she was going to blow up my control panel in my air ship" Saranie muttered, leaning back annoyed.  
  
"DAMN GOODIE-TWO-SHOES!!!" Fuijin snapped, smashing her glasses slightly.  
  
"Eh, calm down girl friend, tis all good..." Saranie laughed, shaking her head.  
  
"Sooo... This is your plan? Bring in the fool that defeated Ultimecia?" Raijin asked, sitting down and opening a can of something.  
  
"Yeah... But, he keeps sexually harassing me..."  
  
"I AINT HARASSING YOU IN ANYWAY!!!" Squall yelled, but stopped when Fuijin glared at him.  
  
"Well... what's the next mission?" Ellone asked.  
  
"Umm... Playing Pac Man!" Saranie yelled.  
  
"Seriously" Squall asked.  
  
"Well... Jaromaru has been giving us a lot of trouble lately..." Saranie rubbed her chin.  
  
"Jaromaru?" Squall asked, confused.  
  
"Here..." Ellone pressed a button under the table, and lights appeared all over the table. A green colored hologram appeared of a strange looking square building "this is Jaromaru."  
  
"Jaromaru is a secret little cult that is devoted to Cennaire, run by Hurdy, who believes that she's the new god. They are very powerful. One Juro, as we call them, equals the strength of three SeeDs in one. Since you're the strongest of SeeDs, we gathered you guys up to help us get past them. They've nothing to do with the Uronian army, yet they like to screw the rebellion up. A lot" Fuijin said, now calm.  
  
"This is their building," Ellone explained, pointing at the hologram "it's run by a main generator in the very center, and their hide out is everything to Jaromaru. If we destroy the hide out, since it's so big, escape is little possibility for most."  
  
"So... blow up the generator, destroy Jaromaru itself?" Squall asked, listening carefully.  
  
"Exactly. But, our main technical and designer, Fuijin, can't devise a bomb that will last longer than ten minutes. We must set the bomb, and leave, without difficulty from the guards, within ten minutes, or else we're done for. We'll have Raijin" Saranie said, leaning over and typing on a keyboard that fell out of the table, as a bleep appeared on the walk way leading north "stay here, to guard the entrance and exit. We'll have to take Fuijin as far as the sixth room in that row over there, to enter in coordinates into the computer locks and the elevator to the basement."  
  
"Afterwards, it's home free for Ellone, you, and Saranie, the burden to get in, blow it up, and get out is on your shoulders" Fuijin said, looking seriously into Squall's eyes.  
  
**  
  
"Why do we have to share a room!?" Squall yelled, laying across one of the tiny beds in an hotel room.  
  
"Because, we can't take money out of the rebellion's stash for you conveiniance, you know. And all the beds in the rebellion head quarters where Ellone and Fuijin and Raijin were are taken. It was a bite out of my pocket to get a double bedded room in Ore's only hotel, so you be happy you don't have to snuggle up to me tonight!" Saranie snapped, coming out of the bathroom in her old clothes, yet without the coat, the shoes, or the gloves and sleeves and leggings, crawling onto the fluffy bed opposite of Squall's, purple toothbrush clenched in her teeth.  
  
"... Okay... But... Stay away from me..." Squall muttered, rolling over onto his stomach.  
  
"Whatever, Romeo..."  
  
Squall twitched slightly, shutting his eyes.  
  
"... Hey, Squall... Do you have a girlfriend?"  
  
He clenched the sheets tightly 'maybe I can get her off of me...' "Yeah, me and Quistis are kind of seeing each other..."  
  
"Oh..." she sounded hurt.  
  
He rolled over, wide eyed "okay... We're not together, I doubt we ever will be..."  
  
She smiled "that little 'oh' always gets 'em."  
  
He ran this through his head, then laughed "oh, you're a good one..."  
  
"I know..." she leaned over the opposite side over her bed, rummaging through a bag she got from the headquarters.  
  
Squall couldn't look away. It was a good view. Though adorned in black, not exactly short like Rinoa, and above all a girl who got around, her rear wasn't less than top ten.  
  
"Hey, want a candy bar?" Saranie sat up, a piece of chocolate in her mouth, another wrapped in a hand.  
  
"You don't exactly eat well, huh?"  
  
"Hey, women on your planet might get thin and bony because they feel unhealthy, but women on my planet get thin and bony cause daddy or honey got laid off" Saranie giggled, nodding.  
  
"Nah, I'll pass..." he shrugged, leaning back and picking up a remote, turning on the TV.  
  
It showed a young looking news reporter with a breaking news logo under her, and small fuzzy picture of an explosion behind her.  
  
"Top News! No more than five minutes ago has are camera Yume sent in this report of the recent explosion at the Nai Justice Center. Judge Hall, previously the Judge of the trials of the six finest members of Cennaire's rebellion, did not survive this attack, as he was a main target. It is blamed on Cid Wiggins, or more commonly known by his middle name, Shun, who was the leader of those six finest members and recently escaped execution narrowly by being aided in escape by his ex girlfriend and leader of the rebellion, Saranie Almasy" the reporter said, yet the screen immediately went blank afterwards.  
  
Squall looked up to see that Saranie had slid behind him while he was watching the news "Yup, that's Shun's doing."  
  
"Shun?..." Squall asked, turning to her.  
  
"Ex-lover. Still friend. He's thirty-five, still pretty hot, and a master assassin. Vampirism, too" she smiled smugly.  
  
"Why was he in prison?"  
  
"That Judge Hill's sixty five and as old as an eighty year old. I think Cennaire's tempting him into always prosecuting the rebellion members. Alls Shun was doing was buying a pop with some other rebellion members, and the cops found out, set him up. So, we pop Shun and about a dozen other rebellion members, and then Shun goes off and takes care of the Judge and law thing."  
  
"Oh... Squall shrugged, leaning over on his side again, none too pleased with the fact Saranie said her ex was hot, yet couldn't figure out why it mattered. "I see you guys got publicity..."  
  
"We usually like more things, too..." Squall felt a leg and something warm fall over him, and hot breath on his neck. He rolled over onto his back, yet Saranie still sat on his stomach, running her hands up his shirt.  
  
"Wh-?" he slid his hands over her pants slightly, letting her kiss on his neck. He didn't know why, but he wasn't ready to make her stop, not yet. He shut his eyes, feeling her hot tongue caress his lips. "Mmm..."  
  
She leaned back, undoing the chains of her shirt. 'A little more...'  
  
SLAM SLAM SLAM!!! "Open up!!! We have a warrant to search this perimeter!!! Fake ID's were used in renting it!!!"  
  
"Just in time..." Saranie said, climbing off Squall and pulling off her shirt, revealing her bra. She opened the door, leaning against the wood panel softly and looking innocent at the men in uniform outside her door "excuse me?"  
  
A few younger men behind the oldest and head gulped, staring at the half naked woman in front of them. The older man seemed only slightly phased "we- we have a warrant to search this premises. Mr. Willis and Ms. Kyles have been missing for the previous month, which means you aren't the lovers."  
  
"We are Marco Willis and Casey Kyles. We went off and got married, and we've been on our honeymoon since. In fact, you interrupted a little get together between us. I hope you're happy!" Saranie, or more Cassandra Kyles snapped, sighing, as she was a good actor.  
  
Squall then realized what she had been doing, seducing him like that. She had made it look like they really were in the middle of something, which made him sweat, his clothes ruffled, and in fact pants unzipped.  
  
"Oh, well then, we're terribly sorry ma'am" they nodded, walking off down the hall for more inspections.  
  
"So... Umm..." he looked down, zipping up his pants and tiding himself up.  
  
"Get your stuff ready, they'll be back. They're just off, but they'll check the ID picture and come back, and won't let us go. We've been discovered, most likely fallowed. Fuijin and Raijin must have noticed this when we left, so most of the headquarters probably been evacuated, but Ellone, Fuijin, and Raijin won't leave without us" Saranie said, picking up the ball of fluff kitten Rira off of the pillow and packing up her bag, getting dressed.  
  
"Oh... Okay..." Squall put on his jacket, making sure there was nothing to be left behind. Saranie leaned over her bag, going through the items and making sure they were all there. Squall had the urge to run his fingers over her skin, yet stayed to his tasks.  
  
After a few moments, Saranie stood next to the window, peering out "right on time... These idiots are too predictable..."  
  
Outside stood a number of police cars, all holding megaphones and calling up to the room "You are surrounded, Saranie Almasy! Come out with you're hands up with your accomplice, and suspected male prostitute! We have the headquarters surrounded as well!!!"  
  
"Male prostitute!?" Squall snapped, wide eyed. Saranie giggled "hey... No time to act like a fool!"  
  
She reached behind her, ripping Rira off of her shoulder and tossing the kitten out of the window, which immediately turned into it's giant cat form. She then leaned over, grabbing her bag and gripping Squall's hand. His eyes trailed up to hers, which were vicious and vibrant "les' go, Squall-io!!!"  
  
She jerked him out of the window, falling onto Rira and veering the cat off and flying through the air. Squall heard gunshots behind him, yet barely over the wind and police sirens. "SIREN!!!" He turned to Saranie "How about I summon Ifrit to hold them off!?"  
  
"No! There are far too many rebellion members on these streets to risk it!"  
  
They neared the headquarter apartment building, and Squall didn't like what he saw. A gray haired young woman was throwing and cracking a whip at the oncoming group of police officers, the dark skinned male was fighting them off with his fists, and in the back of the triangle a brown haired female was shooting a gun at the force.  
  
"Alloy! Make room, Squall!!!" Rira dipped, and Raijin leapt onto the cream colored back, pulling up Fuijin and finally Ellone behind him. They veered off of the straight course, heading away from the desert, from Ore, and all else Squall barely knew.  
  
"Whats going on?! What about Zell!? Quistis?! Selphie!? Irvine!?" Squall snapped, hitting Saranie's shoulder.  
  
"We can't go back, Squall. Too risky!!! They'll be alright, till the sky clears! Until then, we'll go to Nai, meet up with Shun, and then carry out the plan about Jaromaru."  
  
Squall turned back, staring out at the desert behind him. Then, he looked over to Raijin and Fuijin, then back to Ellone too. Finally, he turned around to Saranie and Rira's head. This looked like it was about to be his new crew for now on... 


	3. Wisdom and Betrayal

Squall lay curled against the rock, his eyes shut tightly to block out the red glow of the fire that shone through his eyelids. He couldn't sleep. Only earlier, he had found his sister was on another planet and fighting, nearly gotten close with a girl whom he was unsure of what she was, and ran from a team of police on the back of a giant cat something, just because he wanted to get parts. Now they were in a forest, dense and cold, with a blazing fire, few garments besides clothes to keep themselves warm, and worried about their next mission. Behind him, he could sense Fuijin reading over the plans for bombing Jaromaru, he could hear Raijin in the distance timing Saranie and her ability to take a stick and place it in some place then come back, and he saw his pitiful sister twitching restlessly and moaning. What he wouldn't give to be back at Garden, curled against Rinoa, like those old days.  
  
He shut his eyes. The old days... This wasn't about to be like the old days. He wouldn't get Zell's social knowledge on the landmarks, he wouldn't get Quistis's lustful stare, he wouldn't get to criticize Irvine for his obsession with short skirts, and he wouldn't get to be annoyed by Selphie anymore. He might not ever even see his friend's again...  
  
"OUCH!"  
  
"Hush, Sara, don't wake Squall or Elle..."  
  
"Oh sorry... but that is my toe!!!" he could hear Saranie and Raijin bickering in the distance.  
  
Squall smiled, opening his eyes. There were his new friends, his new crew, and they weren't even half bad... Ellone, the good sweet holy girl with the shot of steel.... Fuijin, the bad girl with the knack for typing and cracking a whip... Raijin, the knuckles and comedic softy... and, worst but best of all in a way, Saranie, the unholy sweet little sister with the same viper like eyes love with for fuzzy things and creative ideas with killing... All of this made Squall want to crack up.  
  
He leaned over, staring at the stars, listening in on the conversation between the three outcasts.  
  
"Fuijin... you need sleep... and not just because that idiot psychiatrist, but if you forget the coordinates tomorrow, I will murder you" Saranie said, sitting down a ways off from Squall.  
  
Fuijin giggled slightly, not in a girlish way, shutting her lap top "your like Seifer..."  
  
"Ya know, you are... I wish he could have came too..." Raijin yawned, laying down between Saranie and Fuijin.  
  
"If he had... He'd most likely be our enemy..." Saranie sighed, glancing at Squall.  
  
Fuijin followed her friend's eyes "... Yeah... leopards don't change their spots... Seifer wouldn't miss a chance to hurt Leonhart..."  
  
Saranie smiled "Never insult an Almasy... That's dad's favorite saying..."  
  
"Good one, too..." the three had a laugh at that, and then fell to sleep.  
  
**  
  
"Ooo... Ahhh... Right? You thought Ore was big, welcome to Nai. IT'S TINY!!!" Saranie cackled at her ability not to make sense, as the five and beast zoomed over the tiny little golden brick and over flowing with water city nestled in the mountains overlooking the desert one way and a forest another. It wasn't cold, at all, on the little hills, so the temperature and the scenario puzzled Squall.  
  
The cat beast landed in the middle of the city, with a slight 'mrow- mew' as it turned into a tiny kitten and leapt onto it's blonde owner's back. The five walked into the city, only Saranie's eyes not circling the beautiful merchant like town. Games, shops, events, everything seemed to be going on at once.  
  
Squall trotted up to Saranie, eyes wide "Hey... What if we're spotted?"  
  
She looked unmoved "Nai's got no phones, nor T.V. Just travelers. We'll blend in, and they won't be looking for us. Not for a few days. We'll rent a jeep, then head out to our little headquarters of Nai and meet up with Shun."  
  
Ellone giggled, spinning in a few directions "Shun... he's so dreamy..."  
  
Squall stopped, surprised "I heard he was thirty five!!!"  
  
"And? I'm twenty two, yeah, but Saranie's eighteen and nearly had to have an abortion cause he's so... good when he's bad" Ellone giggled.  
  
Saranie yawned, "come on, you two. Shun's not a patient man..."  
  
They approached town square, Fuijin playing with a pocket watch "Sara... We got till tomorrow night! Lets have a little fun."  
  
Sara looked shocked "The missions today!"  
  
"You didn't check your IM? Shun said he didn't feel like it today, so he changed it to tomorrow night."  
  
"Typical Shun... Well, I suppose you could go off and do what you want..."  
  
"Well... I know! Me and Ellone will go get some materials, and drag Raijin along, and you and Squall get some rest!"  
  
"Wha?" Saranie asked, eyes wide.  
  
"You two will be the strongest. You and Shun. Squall probably needs some rest too, even though he hasn't been working that hard... But, we need all of you to be in tip-top shape for the mission. Go on have fun!" Fuijin grabbed Raijin and Ellone's hand and running off, waving.  
  
Squall watched them go, his eyes bored "they like to do that, huh?"  
  
"It's their 'out of the act' performance..." Saranie yawned, walking over and leaning over the rails that ran down steps spiraling towards the underground half of the city.  
  
"Heh... Hey, about last night..." he walked over, leaning over the rail next to her.  
  
"Look, Squall, I wasn't about to do anything with you, I was just doing my job. Me and Shun aren't completely apart..."  
  
"... Really?" Squall asked, looking at her sadly.  
  
"Yeah... He was a commanding officer in the army... I was... the general's daughter... Now, both of us are fighting the army..."  
  
"Oh... I mean, since the news said ex girlfriend, and you and Irvine-"  
  
"Squall... I didn't say we were serious..." She laughed as a bunch of pigs in a race ran past through the wooden roller coaster like track.  
  
"... Rinoa would never do that..."  
  
"Funny. Wasn't Rinoa a black-headed whore that did my bro for a while? But then, while still with my bro, kind of dated you for a moment?"  
  
"Yah..." Squall looked down, embarrassed.  
  
"You're in luck. She's one of the heads for Jaromaru... Don't ask me how, but she is. I fight her often. I like to fight her, cause we blow through the battles like dust in the wind. She's funny when she's a bloody heap yelling at her unit for retreating like smart cowards" she took out a wallet, labeled curiously 'Bloodfest', flipped it open to the middle, where a picture of Rinoa on Seifer's lap was.  
  
"Jaromaru?! Rinoa Heartilly?!" Squall said, wide-eyed as he stared at the picture.  
  
"That's her. She's the most annoying witch I've ever met" Saranie yawned, leaning back and stretching.  
  
"... How did you get this picture?"  
  
"Bro's wallet"  
  
"Oh... Saranie... I don't know if I can and can let you fight Rinoa..."  
  
"Know this Squall. My nasty reputation takes me everywhere, and the rebellion can kill innocent people, I will go through you like a hot knife through butter. Shun and I will not take prisoners."  
  
This overwhelmed Squall. Not the fact that she thought that she could defeat him, but something else "you and Shun, you and Shun!!! Go marry the guy for god sakes!!!"  
  
She paused, looking at him "are... you jealous...?"  
  
"Of course not!!! Why would I be!?" He turned, stomping off.  
  
**  
  
Squall sat in the back of the jeep, propping his face against his hand, his tired sister leaning on his side, Raijin on the other side of Ellone. Up front, Fuijin typed away and Saranie drove through the rocky roads. Saranie... Was he actually jealous cause her partner was also her lover?  
  
"Booda... la la... Damn, how do you work this radio?" Saranie asked, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, the pink sun in the sky bouncing off of her glasses.  
  
"It doesn't have one, Sara..." Fuijin muttered, clicking away.  
  
"Damn... I wish Seifer were here... He'd make one..." she giggled.  
  
"He also wouldn't be taking me to see a child molester..." Squall muttered, leaning against the window.  
  
"Shut up, Squall. Or else Shun will eat you alive... Not in the homo way, though."  
  
"Hmph..." He'd avoided talking to the girl, and yet he couldn't help but fantasizing about what it would have looked like if she would have gotten far enough to remove her bra in that hotel room.  
  
"Here we are..." Saranie pulled over to nothing but a cliff and woodland.  
  
"... Huh?" Squall said, confused. Nothing was there... Nothing at all, but that single hill upward cliff.  
  
"You climb up the hill, hun. We're located inside a natural cave..." Fuijin said, and they began their trek up the huge hill.  
  
**  
  
It was an amazing sight to see, really. Buildings inside a cave, technical mixed with natural. People busily but as quietly as possible ran through back and forth, carrying papers, chatting, devising, and even a few doing some recreational things.  
  
The group walked through the cave that was lighted by electronically enhanced lamps and sunlight from the huge entrance. "Welcome, my friend's, and my little angel of ungodliness..."  
  
A worn down looking man with attractive features, accompanied by two young looking people in cloaks, approached the five and the cat. He wore a red cape, a black chest plate, black silk pants, and carrying none other than a dark looking gunblade.  
  
"Ahh... Shun..." Saranie nodded, introducing Squall "this is Leonhart, eager family enemy and destroyer of Ultimecia."  
  
Shun smiled, nodding and holding out his hand "nice to meet you. Not everyday we get such attractive fighters. It'll be even harder to keep Sara now..."  
  
Squall stared at Shun's hand, then looked up at Shun's eyes, a rejecting hint in the brown orbs.  
  
"Okay then..." Shun nodded, leaning back. "Saranie..." he turned to his girlfriend, which he was met by a colder stare "what?"  
  
Saranie tapped her forearms "'DON'T FEEL LIKE IT'?! I'll show you what to and what to not feel like, Cid Shun Wiggins!!!"  
  
"Hey! I thought we all needed a little rest after such big events! I mean, I myself was a little tired after shooting Judge Hill. Lets have a little leisure time..." he put an arm around her.  
  
"Cid..." she shook her head, letting her arms fall to her side.  
  
"Mm, Saranie..." he leaned over, kissing on her neck, which made Squall feel like he was going to be sick.  
  
She giggled, grabbing his face and pulling it closer, yet meeting Squall's eyes and pushing Shun away "look, lets all just go to our rooms... We have a long night tomorrow..."  
  
**  
  
Squall would have given blood in order to have slept next to Saranie, instead of hearing her moan and huff under Shun's weight in the next room over. It seemed as though Saranie knew this too, and was a little ashamed, as she sat opposite of Squall with her face red and head down.  
  
"Toot toot, choo choo!!!" Raijin laughed heartily as they approached the huge building out in the middle of nowhere, on the back of a train heading to give the Jaromaru building to give it supplies. Jaromaru in fact wasn't secret, nor was it in the middle of nowhere. In fact, it was in the middle of the black city of Cumma.  
  
Squall decided what he was going to do. There was no hope in courting Saranie anyways. He wasn't old, or fun, nor could as it seemed 'bang' as hard as Shun. Instead, he would try Rinoa, one last time, when they got there he would leave the group, get Rinoa, tell her about the bomb, and then be the hero, leave, go back to that desert and get the others, and then finally be able to return home.  
  
**  
  
They were running across the tunnel, Raijin has stayed behind at the front to guard the exit, and the others were ahead of Squall. Saranie and her Shun, nearly into each other they were so close. Oh well. This worked well enough. He would advert the route and go through the tunnel straight, where Rinoa's unit was.  
  
He did just that. After he caught Ellone's slipper foot turn the corner, and with regret, he headed straight past the turn.  
  
It was only forty seconds before he bumped into something smaller than him. "Excuse me, recruit, I know I'm the cutest girl in squad but- Squall?!"  
  
"RINOA!!!" Squall huffed and puffed, yet was surprised when he found out he wasn't as happy as he thought he would be when he saw those tiny eyes.  
  
"You... you were on the news... You and that girl had been having sex when the police finally caught you!!!"  
  
"No! We weren't doing anything! Rinoa, I still love you, and right now I need to tell you that the rebellion is here, and they're about to bomb this place!!!"  
  
**  
  
"Squall... He hasn't come yet!" Ellone abruptly stopped, staring down the dark tunnel behind her.  
  
Everybody else stopped as well, Saranie more quickly "WHAT!? Do you think they got him?! Security!?"  
  
"Maybe... I did hear that pair of footsteps disappear from behind me... You don't think he'd actually-?"  
  
"... Last night..." Shun said slowly.  
  
"Shun?" Saranie asked.  
  
"After me and you had our little thing, I went to get a glass of water and I heard him talking in his sleep... Sara, he's selling us out! He's with Rinoa!!!" Shun yelled, and suddenly the alarms rung off.  
  
**  
  
"Ooohhh... How, how could you?" Squall's eyes came into focus as he regained consciousness. Rinoa's blur came into view.  
  
"Oh, Squall. Selling out on your sister and a girl who would have given herself to you in a minute... Just because of little me? How sweet... but... I'm devoted to my job... not a man..." Rinoa cackled.  
  
He was in a dark circular shaped room, with blue hue coming from the tanks lining the wall. He was tied to a pillar in the middle that seemed to be holding the ceiling up, without his jacket or is weapon, his arms smartly placed out so they were far away from his pocket. Rinoa stood in front of him, Angelo at her side, a smug look on her face. To Squall's horror, just behind her, Saranie stood in an empty tank, scowling at Squall hatefully. Shun was tied to a table off to Squall's right, his long black hair falling over his face as he laid sickly looking. In the tanks off to Squall's left, they held knocked out Fuijin, then Raijin, and finally Ellone herself. He winced at the sight; his thoughts of being the hero made him the bad guy.  
  
"Hmm... How naughty, Squall... Getting angry because your interest has a lover... And then, daring to say you still love me! Well, how rude..." Rinoa laughed, shaking her head and turning, walking away from Squall.  
  
"Rinoa... Be nicer to Saranie. Don't let her go, but don't hurt her, either. Neither Squall, Fuijin, Raijin, and Ellone" came a voice that Squall had known to dread, a voice that shocked him, and most of all a voice that made the expression of both him and Saranie change, both for the worst.  
  
"Can do, Seifer..." Rinoa nodded, walking back while holding Seifer's hand "oh, sorry. I forgot; I am with devoted to a man... he's just not you!"  
  
**  
  
"I screwed up big time, okay?!" Squall shouted back across the room at Saranie, who hadn't stopped scowling at him.  
  
"I told you I don't take prisoners... This will cost your life, Squall" she said, staring at him straight faced.  
  
His eyes widened '... If we survive... she's going to kill me?'  
  
"Hmm... Maybe... We can con one of these guards to let us out of here... These fools might find Cennaire their new god, but they aren't about to give up lovin'..." Shun rubbed his chin, pacing in the jail cell the guards had moved him to.  
  
"... So?" Squall shrugged.  
  
"Look, boy, keep your yap shut and we'll leave you here for the slut that you risked you sister's life to get. But, you blab, and we'll make sure your dog meat before the days over. Now, Saranie..." Shun turned to his lover.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You have access to your clothes, right?"  
  
"Yes..."  
  
"When the next shift comes in, I want you to lift up your shirt, rub yourself, moan, do whatever it takes to make him let you out. Then, knock him out, get our weapons, wake up Fuijin and Raijin and Ellone; it's been an hour, they aren't knocked out, just sleeping; and we'll get out of here" Shun nodded.  
  
"What about me?" Squall asked. He knew somehow they weren't going to leave him.  
  
"You're staying. Wouldn't dream of parting you and Rinoa.  
  
**  
  
It had worked like a charm. Saranie told the guard how she thought how big he was, and that she would love to just kneel down in front of him and make him feel like heaven, and he easily let her out of the cell. Seductions one of a girl's special talent, you know. She threw a leg over his knee, and just as he was unzipping his pants, WHAM! Right over the head and down he went.  
  
She picked up the keys, unlocking Shun's cell as he laughed "men were always head over heels for you..."  
  
"I gotta a tongue and a blade and I'll always be forbade" she smiled, walking over to the tanks and opening them from the top, dragging her partners out and waking them, Raijin typically by his hair since he was so heavy.  
  
The group woke up, Ellone staring wide eyed at Squall "how could you? I'm your own damn sister!"  
  
"Ellone, you go with Fuijin and head out down our number one escape route. Raijin, you and Shun go down our number two escape route. I'll take care of the hard part" she withdrew her two short gunblades, sighing heavily and turning to Squall.  
  
"NO!" Ellone screamed, lunging forward but being held back by Fuijin and Raijin.  
  
"... You know the code... Stay or die, that's the rule..." Saranie looked down, sighing "I'm sorry, Ellone..." Fuijin dragged her off and out of the room, followed by five seconds by Shun and Raijin.  
  
Saranie sighed, approaching Squall and raising her gunblades. He shut his eyes, knowing he disserved it.  
  
To his surprise, the chain gradually loosened, then completely fell off. He opened his eyes a little, Saranie looming over him "Stand up, Squall. I like you too much to leave you or hurt you. But, from here on out, you belong to the rebellion."  
  
**  
  
'... Does this woman really have feelings for me?' Squall thought, running quickly behind a relieved Ellone and Fuijin. After all this, he would confront Saranie, ask her what all of this was about. He even doubted he'd have to but go out with her to get away from this rebellion.  
  
But, there was more. There was Shun. "Shun will kill you if you come near me and don't take orders... just, just try to stay out of trouble" she had said. How was he about to stay out of trouble with a guy when he wanted to kiss his girlfriend more than ever now?  
  
"Wh- what the?!" Fuijin stopped, staring at the sight in front of her, so did the brown hairs.  
  
Standing in front of them, a huge mech, a robo-guard.  
  
**  
  
Squall ducked another missal, ramming into the wall. Fuijin and he both were week now, and Ellone lay passed out to his right, huffing and puffing. They were going to die... And his limit break is the only thing that might save them.  
  
"Fuijin... I'm going to use my limit break! That'll hold it off. Then, you take Ellone and get out of here."  
  
"Squall! The rebellion isn't about heroism!!!"  
  
"Just do it- HUH?"  
  
The mech fell to it's knees, then completely down, cracking open the hatch. Inside came tiny voice "wait! We're not the enemy!!!"  
  
**  
  
"So... We were fighting your little brother and sister?" Ellone asked Saranie, shivering against the back of the helicopter that had let them escape.  
  
"Yes! I'm Celbie, and this is Nanto" the young purple girl said, brandishing to the brown haired boy at her side.  
  
"Saranie..." Squall stood up, taking Saranie's hand and pulling her into the back of the copter. He had heard this story before. Kids got stuck in something and were just trying to get out when they attacked the allies. Now, he needed to talk to their older sister.  
  
"Hmm?" Saranie asked.  
  
"I'm... I... Thank you for giving me a second chance..." he smiled.  
  
"Heh... I get it... You want to seduce me since Shun's in the other copter?"  
  
"Oh, umm... Uhh..." Squall shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.  
  
She kissed his cheek "well... this didn't turn out for you for the good... But, maybe next time, Squall-io." 


	4. What Am I?

Squall leaned against the backboard of the rumbling truck as it road through the long valleys of Gila Plains, staring at the star dotted sky. The last time he stared at those stars... He sighed, yawning and shrugging.  
  
"You okay, bro?" Ellone asked, as she sat only a foot away from him.  
  
"Hmm? Yeah... A little boring though, all this riding around."  
  
"It goes on a lot here in the rebellion. Ya get used to it... We can't be flying over Urone in something like that dragon ship you have. That's just a suicide note; you know..." she giggled.  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"Hey, Squall... About the upcoming mission..." came the smooth young yet worn out voice of Shun, as his fingers drummed his knees, his arms crossed over Saranie's sleeping head as she lay in front of him, head on thigh.  
  
"I learned my lesson, okay? I won't bungle this new one up."  
  
"Ya sure won't. Saranie's in big trouble for letting you live. That's why you, Saranie, and Nanto are staying behind."  
  
"What?! She's the leader!"  
  
"She needs time to gather her thoughts. As for you, you need to get acquainted with the Almasy family. I know Novato and Lucre are awaiting to tell Seifer that they are alive, but now it seems if that happened it'd be on their death bed, since Seifer's decided he's working for Cennaire."  
  
"Hold it... I have to pass the information of his parents on to Seifer instead of letting them tell him themselves?"  
  
"You're the only ever known person to have defeated Seifer himself... You could reason with him, and maybe he'd turn his back on Cennaire... But, until then, do well to get the whole story first. Nanto wants to see his dad and mom anyways, so he'll tag along. We're going to drop you off in Pandemonium, the city that's closest to the Almasy family household."  
  
Squall leaned back, shaking his head.  
  
"Oh, and Squall..." Shun stood up, laying Saranie down on the floor and gesturing for the brunette to follow him as he further back into a deserted part of the van.  
  
"Yeah, what?" Squall asked, eyeing Shun carefully.  
  
"Court Saranie. Make her want you."  
  
"What?! She's your girlfriend, not mine!"  
  
"..." Shun leaned back, staring up at the sky through the exposed roof "I'm thirty five. She's merely eighteen... She needs somebody like you. Young love, it needs to stay with the young ones."  
  
"Uh... I don't follow..."  
  
"Saranie deserves a young man, like you. Especially like you. You nearly killed thousands of people to get back your love. I can see it in your eyes anyways; you want this woman..."  
  
"Shun... Are you saying you might die?"  
  
"... Your smart, Squall."  
  
"Shun... You can't die! Saranie loves you."  
  
"She loves that I'm experienced, she loves that I can fight, and well pretty much she loves how I am in bed... Not loves me... There's just something special in your eyes, the way you look at her... You won't just lust her, you will love her..."  
  
"That doesn't mean you should throw your life away!"  
  
"For this bomb... We need somebody to be inside the building to set it off... That'll be me..."  
  
"What? Why?!"  
  
"We're going after Shauna Laboratory. That's where Cennaire's energy comes from. It's too big for a signal to reach this bomb, not too mention the bombs too complex for a button, so I must be the one who sets it off. I'm used to risking my life for my country, so how's the world different?"  
  
"Shun..." Squall said sadly, in defeat.  
  
"Call me Cid..." he shrugged, and as the car pulled to a halt in the city of Pandemonium and Squall was forced to be left to stand on the street side, next to a messy brown haired boy with a sad face, a tiny kitten demon, and the woman of a great hero in his arms asleep, he watched Cid Shun Wiggins wave to him from the back of a war jeep as it pulled away into the night.  
  
**  
  
Squall stared around. Saranie held her head and leaned on him as they walked through the huge city of Pandemonium, Nanto and kitten Rira guiding the way.  
  
Squall slid his arm around Saranie's waist, ready to carry out Cid's last wish, which Saranie didn't seem to know about or was pleased with.  
  
"So... How big is Pandemonium again?" Squall asked, staring at the huge towering buildings around him, listening to the snappy beat of the city.  
  
"It's the biggest city on Urone, I already told you that. It's... twenty miles long, sixteen miles wide, and filled with prostitutes, sleazy dealers, and drug addicts."  
  
"Not the wholesome environment, huh?" He grinned.  
  
"No..." she smiled.  
  
"Hmm..." he leaned over to kiss her, as this seemed like the best time, but she looked away as soon as she saw what he was doing.  
  
"To-To, where we heading?" she asked, flipping the subject.  
  
"Home, der. You didn't get orders?" Nanto muttered to his sister.  
  
"Uh, nope, actually I didn't. Sleeping at the time. Now, to headquarters, you mean?"  
  
"No, we're going home. Papa wants to tell Squall about Seifer... the whole story..."  
  
"HOME!? But, Squall doesn't know..."  
  
"Squall is not knowing?"  
  
"He is unknowing."  
  
"He knows not?"  
  
"Know he does not."  
  
"Not he knows?"  
  
"OKAY BE QUIET! What don't I know?!" Squall snapped, yet was prepared for the worst.  
  
"Squall..." Saranie pushed her fingers together, smiling "um... You see... Since Urone is such a teeny tiny planet... Papa's not just the general of the Spiral army ... but... The president of the country of Spiral, the largest country of Urone."  
  
**  
  
"Let me get this straight. Urone has countries too?" Squall asked as they walked through the shady forest path, away from the noisy streets of Pandemonium.  
  
"Yes, silly. Spiral is the largest, and the well richest. Cennaire is also for the moment the main head of this country, though. Papa acts like he serves her, to protect us kids and the rebellion. Papa's got magic of his own, in his body, so it's easy for him to lie to Cennaire. The second largest is Omigutsinu, it's filled with samurai and ninja want-to-be, but they do cough out some great fighters. That's where Cennaire is currently established. The third largest is Europangth, that's the one with Ore in it. It's mostly dried up, but it's pretty big. The smallest is Sai, that's the one with Nai in it" Nanto explained, yawning.  
  
"Oh... Huh? I thought we were going to the president's house?" Squall stared up at the ruined building in front of him. It was burned to a crisp.  
  
"... No... No..." Nanto shook his head, horror in his eyes.  
  
"... PAPA! MAMA!!!" Saranie screamed, running into the house, crying.  
  
**  
  
"Mama... Papa... Cennaire found out, I bet she did! It's all our fault... our stupid rebellion!!!" Saranie lay curled up, sobbing into a heap.  
  
"Saranie! I found something that wasn't touched! They look like files..." Nanto called from a distance, behind the ruined once beautiful marble staircase.  
  
"Huh?" Saranie stood up, Squall following as she walked behind the staircase, staring at the neat pile of files that her kid brother found.  
  
"... They're labeled 'Mariah Cennaire Yukirin'"  
  
**  
  
"Squall... this isn't making sense! This woman looks just like me..." Saranie moaned, looking through the countless photos of a beautiful blonde woman, wearing a blue and white sailor girl outfit with gleaming blue eyes. She lay sprawled across the grass with a handsome looking man, whom Saranie said was none other than Novato Sebekia Almasy, in many, a loving look in the Jane Doe's eyes.  
  
Saranie then found an actual file. It was a journal, which was labeled 'The Witch Project'.  
  
"Witch?..." Saranie asked, and began reading it, after a moment out-loud.  
  
"Witches are the usually beautiful creatures in disguise as the human being. They're genetic code is approximately the same as that of a sorceress's, as it is a miniature containment of that called 'magic'. Though these 'witches' are known to be able to manipulate elements, they are not as powerfully enhanced as a sorceress. Except, if they are infected with the powers of the Stones of Divine. They may be able to pass on powers to new generations and be even more powerful than Ultimecia herself in ways. But, this can lead to tragic death in childbirth, as the powers of Shiva, Ifrit, Quesacotl, Diablos, or the Divine himself inside the whelp will overwhelm the mother.  
  
"I have met a beautiful woman. Her name is Mariah, and she will be the new scientific breakthrough. She is a witch of the light. I will breed her with a human, expose the impregnated mother to the stones, and create children. If the first is male, and the second is male, I will destroy the second. I do not want two children of the same gender.  
  
"I have met a young man named Novato Almasy. He is fully another descendant of Adam and Eve, and a perfect breeding partner, as he and Mariah seem to be in love. I will breed the two and expose both to the stones, then run my tests.  
  
"Novato Almasy, now exposed to a stone of Divine, and now a witch of earth, seems to have compatibility with a sorceress, proving my theory true. Mariah, on the other hand, is sworn a hatred to all sorceress's and has pledged death to them. It seems the ancestors of the witch's, Merlin and Gabriel, were true as described in ancient stone tablets. Merlin and Gabriel were in love, yet one day Ultimecia, a sorceress, broke them apart by having Merlin fall in love with her, thus making male witches attracted to sorceress's and female witches un-attracted to sorceress's.  
  
"The first child, dubbed Seifer, has been a complete success. He harness's the witch power of darkness, though it is doubtful this power may ever awaken in power. The next child, a complete female, dubbed Saranie, is a complete success as well, as she herself now as a mere infant is awakened in power already, due to my theory of immense radiation to a Stone of Divine. Though, my research will be cut short until maybe I can breed brother and sister, because Mariah has died in childbirth."  
  
"... Saranie... your... I'm sorry, it sounds like..." Squall said slowly.  
  
"I'm not human."  
  
He stood up, walking over to a teary eyed shocked Saranie and hugging her softly, looking down at the file.  
  
"Hey, there's more... newer entry, even..."  
  
"... I can't read anymore..." she moaned.  
  
"... I'll read for you" Squall nodded "now...  
  
"Mariah. The ultimate witch. Reincarnation of Gabriel herself. I shouldn't have been so absent with my work. I should have observed further. She knew, even though I was so well hidden... She knew I was a sorceress... But, being the witch of light, was unable to harm me until I sinned... I am sheer luck that I did not sin, or I may not be alive today. This woman, she haunts me... Nothing more, though. I finally have this Saranie and Seifer in my hands. I can continue my research. Saranie, leader of rebellion... hmm... She knows not she's not the one hunting me, I'm hunting her.  
  
"It seems this fool Novato re-married. This time to a woman named Lucre. There are two more children, named Nanto and Celbie. No matter. Though they hold the power of lightening and ice, they are too meager and young, being more human the witch.  
  
"It is time for I, Cennaire, to trick this Seifer into thinking I am his daughter, and then kill two of the most powerful witches ever born. But, first, I must breed the two and infect their child with myself, giving me an ultimate power. Then, I kill Saranie and Seifer Almasy... The monsters I created...  
  
"But, it seems, as the prophecy says, 'One day when lights dim in the universe, one will burn brightly, then brighter, and Divine himself will awaken in one soul and destroy what is known as the great evils of Pandora's box'. Greek mythology, but could this be true? I must stay on my guard."  
  
"... Cennaire... isn't Seifer's daughter! She's actually... I hate to say it, but almost the reason me and him are created!!!" Saranie stood up "Mariah... she is my real mom? Novato! He couldn't have died in this fire, he's a witch!" Saranie yanked out of Squall's grip stomping towards the door, her fists balled.  
  
**  
  
Squall chased the girl, Nanto and Rira following him. A dark mist settled over the mansion while they were reading, and it was a little hard to spot the blur ahead of them as she trotted down the lane.  
  
She suddenly stopped, turning and looking to the right, muttering something as she walked to the edge of the road, to an opening in the long line of neatly groomed trees.  
  
Squall huffed and puffed as he stopped where she had entered the trees. A little burial graveyard, cute and tiny, for family, sat there. A tall man with long white hair, a strict and stern face, the smallest of eyes, and the lean yet muscular physique stood there, placing a flower on a grave with an angel on it. The engraved words on it were hard to make out.  
  
"Novato!" Saranie yelled, as she was right behind him, arms at her side as she huffed and puffed.  
  
"... Sara... Cennaire found out... I'm so sorry... My magic didn't work..." he looked down.  
  
"Cause you're the witch of honesty, right? Novato..." Saranie growled.  
  
"I laid those files out so you might find them... Lucre wouldn't let me tell you... She loves you because you're her daughter, she doesn't want you to think any different..." Novato sighed.  
  
"... Where's my mom buried?"  
  
"Right here..." Novato sighed, stepping out of the way. The tombstone was much bigger than the one with the freshly overturned dirt, which Squall assumed was Lucre's.  
  
"..." Saranie slowly walked over to the grave of her real mother's, leaning down and stroking the name "Mariah... Yukirin..."  
  
"You look just like your mother... Though, act a little different... No, I suppose not... Your mother threw her life away to destroy a sorceress, and it seems you might too..."  
  
"... She died to destroy a sorceress?"  
  
"Mm. She prayed every night to the god of Divine to bless her with the kindling hope, which would be a fire witch of power that will use her mother's soul in her flames, to destroy the sorceress's. You happened to be a fire witch, and take your mother's soul with you when you were born..."  
  
"... She died for my powers?" Saranie asked, tears welling up in her eyes.  
  
"In a way..." Squall decided that Novato was as caring as Seifer.  
  
"... So... Cennaire wants me to have a kid with my brother, right?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Saranie cringed "ew..."  
  
"Hey, Seifer ain't that bad looking, is he?" Novato laughed.  
  
"Ugh..." she stood up, sighing "yay... I'm a monster that's meant to get banged by her brother."  
  
**  
  
"... You won't actually let Seifer... go Flowers in The Attic on you, right?" Squall asked Saranie, as he sat on a bar stool, she opposite of him sitting on the bar itself. The bar was empty, except for a few lingerers on a Monday night.  
  
"I don't know... Squall, I can't trust in human instinct anymore..."  
  
"But..." he sighed, shaking his head "Annie..."  
  
She sat up straight, wide eyed "... Squall... Only Shun has ever called me Annie..."  
  
'Shun...' Squall thought, looking down "Shun... Huh?"  
  
"I know you hate him, but..."  
  
"No, I don't! He was actually... pretty cool..."  
  
"Damn right honey! Shun made a girl hot and made a guy laugh!" came the deep voice of the middle aged African woman with the big round figure as she waddled out of the kitchen.  
  
"Heh... You tell him, Aretha!" Saranie giggled as the woman gave her a scowl for sitting on her bar.  
  
"You get down from there, girly, you'll scare away the customers!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Put on some underwear or a bunny outfit or get down, 'cause a black trench coat ain't gonna help these perverts, honey!" Aretha said, gesturing with her wrist of Saranie getting off the bar.  
  
Saranie sighed, jumping down and onto Squall's lap, making him uncomfortable "Squall, this is Aretha. She runs this here bar. She's an excellent singer!"  
  
"Mm, used to be honey. Now I'm just a bar hostess" Aretha shrugged her shoulders, turning and arranging a few bottles on a shelf.  
  
"But, you can sing..." Saranie said in a reminding voice.  
  
"... Sara, you are by far the worst Almasy I have ever heard of!" Aretha flipped around, putting her hands on her big hips, shaking her head.  
  
"But, you have heard of me..." Saranie giggled, nodding and shaking a finger at Aretha.  
  
"Who hasn't? It seems a little girl was in here just a bit ago, looking for you, and some guy named Squall..."  
  
"... She didn't happen to be wearing a blue overcoat, black undershirt, blue overskirt, and black shorts?"  
  
"And a necklace with a ring on it?" Squall butted in, now scared of the answer.  
  
"Why, yes she did! A friend of yours, Saranie? I say, she sure was annoying, so help me my great lord Jesus!" Aretha said, shaking her head.  
  
"No, not really..." said Saranie, a bit sarcastically, casting Squall a dark look. "Necklace with a ring on it?"  
  
"Er... Well, you see... A while ago, when we were together, I gave Rinoa a ring of mine... It was called Griever... She put it on a necklace, and kept it. I never got it back. I saw she was still wearing it last night when we were captured..."  
  
"? Captured?" was Aretha's answer, and Saranie's was "You name and have jewelry?"  
  
"... I mean, uh, we were caught drunk driving, and the police caught us" Squall answered to Aretha, remembering the rebellion was secret and wanting to get off of the conversation with Saranie that might make him view as sensitive, and he wanted to be pretty much more like Seifer than Irvine's made up look for women.  
  
"...? Was Fuijin and Raijin captured too? Did they get out of Jaromaru alive? Cause, Raijin's my best customer for food, and Fuijin does enjoy a little something on the rocks here and there... Oh, and Ellone is the sweetest little helper! Did they all survive?" Aretha asked, to Squall's shock.  
  
"Dun worry Squall, Aretha is part of the rebellion too" Saranie said absently, her mind still concentrated on the ring part 'He names is rings!? And he gave one to Heartilly?'  
  
"Oh... Sorry, I didn't know. I forgot I've only met some of the major roles..."  
  
"Excuse me?! I am one of the greatest roles in the rebellion! In fact, the rebellion is so tiny, it consists of less than twenty-six minor members..."  
  
"What!? Then what about all these people I keep seeing at all of the headquarters?!"  
  
"Those are all the same people. Those are the minor members, the people you see. We always split up and head to different locations. The minor member group consists of twenty-six people, the middle class, those are Shun's team, I think six members, and Celbie and Nanto, and the leaders are me, Shun, Elle, Fuijin, and Raijin. Your... Just kind of a hired hand. We were hoping for the rest of your team... We sent Ellone and Celbie out to get them. We were going to send Celbie, cause she's warm and good at persuading, and Fuijin, because she's one of our strongest and careful Silent members, those are members sent out for missions that involve disguise, but Ellone knew that Quistis, Zell, Irvine, and Selphie would believe somebody that they had already known, like her" Saranie said, getting off of Squall and slumping into a chair '... Griever, it is a cool name, but you name a dog, not a ring...'  
  
"Oh... So, they'll be coming with us?"  
  
"What? Four more mouths to feed?" Aretha moans, "I'm the cook for the rebellion, that's my main participation. I gotta feed... Lets see, plus you, Squall, and your friends, that makes thirty-nine people to feed!"  
  
"... That'll be only thirty-eight..." Squall said, looking down.  
  
"What? No, minor, middle, and first class... those all put together is thirty- nine" Saranie muttered.  
  
"No. Shun won't be with us anymore."  
  
"? Squall, Shun's never let me down, nor anybody else. Especially not his home planet, you know that much. He'll stick to the rebellion to the very end" Saranie said, now even angrier at Squall for saying that about her lover.  
  
"This will be the end for him..." Squall looked down.  
  
"Huh? Squall, you aren't making since..."  
  
"Saranie, this bomb needs to be activated with a button. Shun... Volunteered to be the one who activates the bomb. I'm sorry, he told only me... He just couldn't hurt you..."  
  
Saranie backed up, a look of horror in her eyes "y- you're lying! Shun can't die! It's not his time!!!"  
  
Aretha sighed, looking down "sugar, this does sound like something Shun would do, through and through..."  
  
"... But... after this, we were going to get married, have a family, in a place where nobody had to fear a witch..."  
  
"... No... Saranie... I-... I'm sorry..." Squall stood up, sighing and looking down, as he wasn't really one to comfort, but even more he feared that temper. The same temper that he was sure all Almasy kin had. The temper that went by the motto, 'When things go wrong, when the lights go out, when your scared, run around and scream and shout'. This was something wise to fear, his scar reminded him.  
  
"NO!!! I can't do this without Shun!!! He can't die!!! I have to stop him!" she shook her head, her long black coat flying behind her as she turned, whisking away and out of the door, causing as much commotion that could be cause in a nearly empty bar.  
  
"I should have stopped him!" Squall shouted, pounding his fists on the bar.  
  
"Honey... Nobody can stop Shun... He's a wild thing, he really is... You'd think he's an Almasy himself... You can tack 'em to a wall, in a concrete room, with six titanium steel doors... and after swallowing that key, you turn around and they're standing right in front of you, sporting that 'I love a good fight' grin..." Aretha sighed, looking down.  
  
"... You're... right!" Squall said, something good coming out of this.  
  
Fight Seifer. Show him right from wrong. Teach him once again. But... Seifer was now revealed as something Squall didn't want to know. The files said he also came from Mariah... What if Cennaire awoken Seifer's 'craft'? Squall barely stood a chance, now that he had some sort of connection with the misguided Almasy, not being able to do more than just pummel him. Now, Seifer might send Squall into a swirling vortex of darkness, with no end, just down and down and down...-  
  
"NO!!!" there came a screech from outside. Saranie!!! Aretha jumped up from her confusion in Squall's response, turning and heading for the door quickly "honey, are you okay- What and the hell!?"  
  
A small ball flew into the bar past Aretha, landing in front of Squall, where it began spewing purple gas into the room.  
  
"Knockout gas!" Squall yelled, as he started running for the door, but as his legs seemingly grew into an ooze, his arms floppy, he fell face down on the floor, and shut his eyes into a deep sleep...  
  
(Sorry for keeping you all waiting! You shnee... I umm... hee hee comps not working so well.) 


	5. No More Chances

"... Ow..." Saranie opened her eyes lightly, looking around the dark room she was held captive in. A tall dark shadow stood in front of her.  
  
"... Are you okay?" came the medium pitched, yet sly cat-scratch voice of somebody she knew.  
  
"Seifer... Why? Please... Cennaire is not your daughter! You are destroying your own family! Seifer, your real family is Novato, President of Spiral, and I! And Nanto, and Celbie too!!!"  
  
"... I know this, Saranie..." the figure looked down "Cennaire told me... and I will not even hurt you..."  
  
"Then why did you let Rinoa knock me out all dirty and unsuspecting like that!?"  
  
"Saranie... my destiny is to rule under a sorceress... Rinoa is a sorceress, and so is Cennaire. It may not be yours, but it's mine..."  
  
"But, Seifer... your only destiny is to come home, stay home, and raise your own family!!! You may not want peace... but it is human nature..."  
  
Seifer grunted angrily, the green eyes narrowing "humans are too fragile, they break easily. I am a witch of darkness, and you are a witch of fire. We are not humans and you know it!"  
  
"... But... I want my big brother, just like any other human..." Saranie whimpered, looking down.  
  
"... I cannot be your big brother anymore..."  
  
Tears welled up in Saranie's eyes "WHAT ABOUT SQUALL?! What happened to Nanto?! Will you kill Fuijin and Raijin too?! Ellone is only trying to help!!! And so was Shun, he too was only trying to help!!!"  
  
She felt a cold hand slap her across the face "you need to be quiet! Cennaire is busy planning an attack on Esther..."  
  
"Esther...? That's not on Urone... You mean to tell me Cennaire is trying to attack new planets?"  
  
"Yes. She wants to rule the whole Universe."  
  
"... And you'll help her..."  
  
"Saranie, I love you to pieces. But denying destiny could through you off course... That's why I must do Cennaire's orders... EVERY one of Cennaire's orders..." he leaned over, kissing her on the lips softly, making the fiercest of the Almasy's stomachs both flip.  
  
**  
  
"Yo, boy, wake up. Come on, player, this ain't no time for a nap!" came the snappy voice of the old Aretha into Squall's ear. His eyes opened slowly so that he saw a bright white room around him, and felt the cold leather doctor room like bed beneath him. Standing in front of him was the old black woman, giving him a scowl. Behind her, two soldiers stood with their black guns pressed against her back.  
  
"Aretha... Where are we?"  
  
"Polygon, Cennaire's 'castle in the sky'. It's just a big air ship, but it is pretty big. It's docked in the ocean, so without finding Saranie and her kitten, we're stuck here like grease on French-fries."  
  
"Hmm..." he glanced at the soldiers "I've been caught again, separated from comrades..."  
  
"Damn right, honey. They're moving me, somebody on this ship wants to have a private talk with you... You'll be okay?"  
  
"As okay as I can be against somebody likely to have a weapon and me only with bare fists."  
  
"Uh huh. Well, then- OUCH! Damn you fools can you please wait?!" she turned around snapping at the soldier that had prodded her in the back.  
  
**  
  
About thirty minutes after Aretha was drug away by the guards, just as she had gotten into a very disturbing story about a dream she had about Novato and Shun and her, Squall decided to look for a way out of the cold, empty room.  
  
Nothing. There were two small beds, hard and freezing, on the sides of the walls. The rest of it was padded and bright white, and only one window in the front next to the door, one-way Squall decided as he couldn't see the other side. The door had a strange symbol on it, like some sort of space- ship door, the lines for it made out of a smooth emerald colored stone that reminded Squall of a girl's he had grown to like and a guy's he had to hate before he liked eyes.  
  
"... I have to get out of here... If Cennaire's aboard, then so is Seifer... Maybe I can convince him to let us go."  
  
He sat down against, laying back on the bed that was even harder than the ground. He sighed, shaking his head as the door opened. He sat up quickly, smiling at the person who entered "I didn't think that door could open... didn't know it was the gateway to hell..."  
  
Seifer frowned at him from across the room, shaking his head "it's electronically powered... you need a control to open the lock. No deciphering codes, as Cennaire learned from Matron's mistake..."  
  
"Oh, I see..."  
  
Seifer sighed, walking over and sitting down on the bed, putting his forehead on his hands "... Squall... I'm sick, I really am..."  
  
"? You have the flu? Wait, cancer? I heard nothing doesn't give you cancer these days..."  
  
Seifer smiled slightly "your not the joking one, Squall..." he pulled back his sleeve, revealing claw marks reaching the shoulder.  
  
"...? You look like you were beaten..."  
  
"No, I beat somebody else..." he said, sighing pathetically.  
  
"What!?" Suddenly it snapped back in to Squall that Saranie too was captured. "Seifer... You raped Sara?"  
  
"No. I tried, though..." Seifer looked up.  
  
"... But, you didn't have the heart..."  
  
"I didn't have the heart period. I just had to follow orders... But, Saranie's a lot stronger than I anticipated... Cennaire says we can't conceive naturally. She'll have Quistis scientifically do it..."  
  
"What!? Quistis?!"  
  
"Yeah..." Seifer said slowly.  
  
"Quistis is here!?"  
  
"Yeah... two days ago, we picked them up out at the gas station. Squall, they don't like Saranie too much... don't trust her, really. But, they did trust Rinoa, and Quistis trusted me, so now they are working for Cennaire, too."  
  
"..." Squall looked down "I want to talk to them."  
  
"You're a prisoner, you can't command me!"  
  
"Can I bribe ya?"  
  
"... We already took everything you have..."  
  
"I can think of a few more things..." Squall said slyly.  
  
**  
  
"Ow! Hey that tickles! Stop it, Quistis!" Saranie snapped, flailing at the attacker.  
  
"I need you to go nighty night, Saranie!" Quistis snapped, nearly dropping the syringe  
  
"So you can put my brother in me? I don't think so! I don't want to have to claw your eyes out too, but I will!" Saranie growled, leaping off the wall literally of her now well lighted prison cell, over a shocked Quistis and accidentally into a uniformed Irvine's arms.  
  
"Do it now, Quisty! I doubt we'll get this chance again" Irvine said, closing his arms tightly around Saranie and holding her still.  
  
"Right..." Quistis said, moving towards the struggling blonde in front of her.  
  
Saranie's eyes narrowed. Without those dagger-blades to channel energy through, she was likely to do more than just burn Irvine off of her, much less not kill Quistis with her fire power. But, she wasn't about to have very, very messed up offspring. A flame caught the inside of her green eye as it turned blood red, and Quistis was ignited into flame, as was Irvine. They both fell to the ground, fire on Irvine's arm and Quistis' hair alight. Saranie stood up quickly, diving and snatching up Quistis' keycard, and making a dash for the electronically powered door. After beating out the flame, and a shock from Quistis' now nearly bald and burnt head, Quistis and Irvine stood up to find themselves locked in the room.  
  
"... She's slick..." Quistis said, sighing.  
  
"Well... we can only wait until somebody comes and gets us out of here..." Irvine shrugged.  
  
"...!" Quistis' eyes caught a horror "... I'm the only one, besides Seifer and Cennaire, ever to be allowed in this section of the building...!!!"  
  
**  
  
"Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira... Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira... Gotta find weapons, money, Squall and Aretha and Rira..." Saranie muttered, running down the long empty passages of the gray cold halls of the Polygon. She was slightly happy that the halls were empty, because then she wouldn't be stopped. But, it'd be a lot easier to seduce a Jaromaru or soldier into telling her where the weapons were and then stealing his clothes. Hell, she should have done that to Irvine. Well, she would have even tried Quistis just to get out of this mess.  
  
She turned, staring down a darker hall to her left. She had heard yelling. Unless there were ghosts here, there was at least a person down there. This seemed to be the 'Prisoners' section, anyways.  
  
"?!" Saranie was barely shocked by the scene seen, actually. Aretha was yelling at an awkward looking young soldier as he leaned back from her, as she snapped at him for the hard bed.  
  
"Excuse me, but I mean we are guests! You fools could have a tad bit more hospitality, you know!" she snapped her fingers in his face.  
  
"Aretha! How did you get out of your cell!!!?" Saranie shouted, running up along side of her.  
  
The soldier frowned "excuse me, miss... But, you both will have to go back into your cells..."  
  
Saranie turned, frowning and standing on her tip toes. If she scratched and slyed her voice a little, maybe she could pull this off "excuse me... But, I'm in charge of this prisoner's whereabouts, and I believe I should know where her money and the other's weapons are kept."  
  
"Mr. Almasy! Sir, umm... Nice change in uniform, and hair..."  
  
Saranie paused. At least her trench coat covered the tight fitting female clothes, maybe she could really pull off to look enough like her brother to this dork "umm... I decided I would wear black, to honor Cennaire... And I got back from a mission, it's a wig."  
  
It had work. Saranie and Aretha were free, learned where the weapons, money, and Rira were, and even got information on where Squall was.  
  
**  
  
"Aretha, Rira, you two look for a way out, I'll go get Squall, okay?" Saranie turned, running off down the straight and narrow hall of the A-Male section. The brunette was said to be somewhere around here, because he was a high class male prisoner. So far, Saranie guessed that the three humans and the cat demon were the only prisoners in a while, as all the cells around her were empty.  
  
"Let's see..." she glanced at all of the windows, all rooms empty. Until she came to the last window...  
  
"My eyes, ack my eyes!!!" she turned around, shielding her eyes from the sight of her brother and Squall together in a way she wished to rather die than be forced to see again.  
  
**  
  
"You're mad at me, huh?" Squall said, finally happy to get jealousy out of Saranie, who rocked back and forth with her back to him on the other side of the door. He slid on his jacket, patting a sleeping Seifer on the bed that he had previously been on.  
  
"No, I'm scared. Very, very, very scared... I just saw you and my brother in the middle of something not very pretty... and they say it's beautiful... Ugh, that's like seeing your damn parents!"  
  
"I'm not your dad, and neither is Seifer. Now, lets hurry up and get out of here, Seifer might wake up..."  
  
"Kay. I left Aretha and Rira to find an opening so we can fly out of here" Saranie said, racing down the hall with Squall following.  
  
"What about Nanto?" Squall asked.  
  
"! He's here!!!?"  
  
"Seifer told me in the middle of climax there... You didn't know? Celbie's a traitor. She herself works for Cennaire, as does Quistis, Zell, Irvine, and Selphie."  
  
"I noticed. Quistis tried a tranquilizer on me... But, my own little sister!? That's sickening... We can't leave."  
  
"I know I kno- WHA?!" Squall snapped, amazed.  
  
"Today, we take down Cennaire, once and for all. She's getting on my nerves, you know..."  
  
**  
  
Squall raced along side of Saranie and Aretha, who was incredibly fast for how fat she was. Nanto and Rira raced behind, holding Seifer, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, and Irvine hostage. They had gotten the information from Seifer that the only people aboard were five guards and Cennaire herself besides them. Cennaire was at the head of the ship in her personal room. That's where they were heading.  
  
"Hold it..." Aretha stopped, looking around quickly. Nanto stopped to, balancing himself.  
  
"What's wrong, Aretha?" Saranie asked, as everybody looked at the woman.  
  
"Do you feel that...?"  
  
"WE'RE MOVING!!!" Nanto yelled.  
  
**  
  
The entire group, except for Squall, Saranie, and Seifer were off on a row boat that was pulled by Rira, off back to land, so they wouldn't get lost, as the ship pulled away from the only land that would be for miles. Saranie didn't want to endanger them, Squall didn't want to endanger Saranie, and Seifer had woken up and realized he had to protect the only person just like him in the universe.  
  
"Okay... We should come up upon the control room after we get up these stairs, round a few corners, and then head north. Then we can get to the bottom of why this damn air ship is moving..." Seifer huffed and puffed, feeling the burn of the rarely used running muscles in his legs as he leapt over step over step, following the brunette and blonde ahead, as Saranie seemed to be the fastest even compared to both taller men.  
  
"Thats... it... if I see any more steps... I'm gonna give up hope and leap off the entire flight!!!" Saranie moaned, stopping to catch her breath.  
  
"How are there so many stairs in a damn ship!? Are we going from the vowels of the bottom to the very tip of the top?!" Squall snapped, sitting down on a step for half a moment.  
  
"Pretty much... The control room, without a doubt, is at the very top. The prisoner's cells are at the very bottom. So... This will take a while... Specially if you fools keep stopping like this!" Seifer snapped, trudging on heavily.  
  
"Ah go hug a rainbow, jolly rancher!!!" Saranie snapped, attracting both Seifer's and Squall's attention, much to her delight.  
  
**  
  
Squall's eyes finally met the top of the stairs, to his relief. Saranie was sprawled across the final landing, and Seifer was literally crawling up the banister behind him.  
  
"We are in no shape to fight Cennaire..." Seifer moaned, falling to his by now flamming knees.  
  
"I had better not even see a five step ladder on this here ship!!!" Saranie snapped angrily.  
  
"If I make out with you will you feel better?" Squall said, hoping for a yes, it'd sure make him feel better anyways.  
  
"In your horny school boy dreams."  
  
"Specially in my dreams!"  
  
"Don't be sick, Squall..."  
  
"Tee hee..."  
  
"Hey, you love birds, or sex gremlins, whatever, the more time we waste the further away we get from land, and more time we give Cennaire!" Seifer snapped at the two.  
  
"Hmm... Well, lead the way, scarface!" Saranie giggled.  
  
"Hey, I'm scarface!" Squall remarked, standing.  
  
"Nuh uh, I am!" Seifer snapped off lines from the movie.  
  
"But, I have a scar, too" Squall pouted.  
  
"Eh... But, without me, you wouldn't have one" Seifer grinned.  
  
"... Okay, Saranie, you call him scarface... what are you gonna call me?" Squall looked towards Saranie, who was already gone and racing down the hall.  
  
"I'll call ya both dead and dead-wood Blues if ya don't hurry your ass up!!!"  
  
The three rounded a sharp turn, finally heading north towards none other than the control room.  
  
"Hey, Saranie, if we make it... how about dinner?" Squall smiled slightly, trying to ease the nervousness.  
  
"... I'll think about it, okay?" Saranie said in a soft tone, yet still sly, giving Squall the biggest surge of hope and relaxation he had yet.  
  
Seifer slid over closer to Squall, still running, and in a whisper, hissed "you break her heart, I break your will."  
  
"I doubt if there's any heartbreaking I'll be the one who breaks that beautiful heart."  
  
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, YOU BUMBLING BUFFOONS!!!"  
  
"Aww fuck!"  
  
"Huh? Hey, what?" Squall spun around, and Seifer moaned "I forgot that there was also a certain raven haired bitch aboard..."  
  
Rinoa cackled from her perch atop the tiny mech's shoulder she stood on. The blue robo-guard was only as big as about Squall and Seifer put together, as it was built for one person operation, but it looked so armored that no blade could possibly slice through it "lets see you fools get past this..."  
  
"Squall, Seifer, go on and stop this ship... We can't afford this time. I'll take care of miss sweet..." Saranie smiled slightly. This was personal. Pretty much, in instance, it was more than just two enemies, a girl getting back at another girl for being such an obstacle, it was a fight of love. Rinoa, in a way, still owned every inch of Squall's heart, a space Saranie wanted to claim. Like a wolf fights for dominance, Saranie herself was ready to take down the old alpha female and fight for den that was Squall's love. 


	6. One in a million girls

"I suppose your willing to take more, Saranie Almasy?" Rinoa screeched as her two interests, which had forgotten about her all together, raced down the hall to fulfill a task that in her book her worst enemy had assigned.  
  
'No... I was wrong... I still need Squall... and I can't let her have him! He's mine, I proved that years ago, in a space, on a rocket ship, after he saved my life!' Rinoa quickly turned around and signaled for one of her guards to come to her.  
  
'Squall's mine, you preppy bitch... If you really think I'm about to let you take him from me myself, your in for, how do you say, a fire of passion?' Saranie clenched her teeth, finally ready to harness the fire within her to a great power.  
  
Both women had ignored the man that they were now ready to kill for at first, blowing him off as just another boy-toy, another one of those men you use as slaves for a while or like a game or challenge. But now, just uttering his name might be heart-stopping for them. 'Squall'... Rinoa has fell in love with Squall far from slowly, and she loved him, he barely even loved her, but either way it was quick and always based on attraction. Saranie, on the other hand, just wanted to tease Squall, make him mad and then make him beg, just like she was taught, but by now she realized that he's a one and only chance, and somebody that was for real or not at all.  
  
"... Go and stop those two men. Don't hurt the brown haired one, though, and make it clear that I want no harm to come to him, you hear? I'll take care of the rebel leader, alone" she nodded at the soldier as he leapt into the mech, slowly trudging down another hall, out of poor Saranie's reach as she is unable to stop the enemy from reaching her crush and brother. 'Get there without a fight, guys... Let no bad happen...'  
  
"So... I hope your scared, little miss I'm gonna take somebody else's man..." Rinoa snickered.  
  
"You had a chance, and it's revenge for breaking my brother's heart..."  
  
"What are you saying?! He was trying to do what he thought was good, but you ran off with Squall. And as far as I'm concerned, it's time for you to repent, Almasy style!"  
  
"Hmph... you can tell by your idiotic hissing sound of voice that you and Seifer are related..." Rinoa said smugly.  
  
"Oh, we also have the same tempers..."  
  
"So what? You can take it out on your friends, you can't blame yourself, and you refuse to show much of any sign of real affection."  
  
"..." Saranie looked down. All of that was true... she was first to snap at Fuijin for the mix up in dates and malfunctions in weapons, she was ready to slap Raijin silly when things never went her way... and most of all, she was willing to kill her own family for betraying her... but, she wasn't about to let Rinoa know this.  
  
"Okay, then... Sure, Rinoa, I'm JUST like my brother. Now fight me, ALONE!" Saranie smiled as Rinoa's eyes widened at her mistake.  
  
"Uh... Whatever, lets go! I'll fight for my employer and my man!!!"  
  
**  
  
"... Rinoa, whose the real good guy? In all of this... which side do you think is good, and which is bad?" Saranie coughed slightly, rubbing the blade wound on her shoulder as blood gushed down. It stung like hell, really. But, never let them see you cry, right?  
  
"Cennaire! And Jaromaru! And the Sorceress's!!!" Rinoa said from her sitting position, as Angelo stood in front of her snarling. She had a gash on her stomach, her arms were sliced to bits, and she had been trampled on, just not yet burned...  
  
"No, they aren't..."  
  
"You say that just because you're a witch! I heard about you! Your evil people disguised as women, the only good of you are the men!"  
  
"..." Saranie bit down on her teeth. She had now grown to hate this fact entirely. She wasn't a witch... she was a human, and full fledged human... with powers, just like any of the others that used magic from draw points... Maybe she was a draw point? And a chicken is fowl. It made no difference, she still was human. She had a human's feelings, she had a human's desires, and this attack was not based on grudge. It was based on a want for all the life on Urone. But... she was still killing so much in a process. "Rinoa, if Cennaire is a good guy, how is she different from Ultimecia or Edea?"  
  
"... Because she is a good guy!"  
  
"No, she isn't. She is using you, just like Ultimecia... But, that doesn't make me a good person..."  
  
"?"  
  
"Both sides... blame each other... that's what Seifer said to me... and I will take that to my grave... 'There are no sides of good or bad. Each has it's own faults. If the good is willing to kill, they are ultimately bad. If the bad is willing to say they are good, they are ultimately good. Therefore, with both Yin and Yang combined, are the sides of war, thus being no good or bad."  
  
"... Seifer... Green eyes... witches... Gabriel... Mariah... Yurikin... YOU!!!" Rinoa stood up and ran at Saranie, powers swirling around her as she was ready to deliver the fatal blow, Angelo the dog also lunging at Saranie, teeth barred...  
  
The flame of hatred grew closer and closer to the top of Saranie, the flame of passion burned Saranie's face, and the flame of insanity singed Saranie's eyes. In her heart, pictures flew up and through her mind... Seifer and her, two little blonde children unwilling to let each other go as a faceless man pried them apart at the orphanage... A young girl, fifteen, lays dazzling green eyes on a thirty two year old handsome man, and from then on out are in love... three young siblings playing a game of tag on an open field as their parents watched... Fuijin and Raijin arriving at an airport, happy to finally see home... Ellone running up and giving the tightest hug Saranie had ever felt... A brown eyed storm and a green eyed typhoon fighting over the pronunciation of 'Cid'... A picture of a beautiful blonde woman staring out at the ocean... Mariah! Witches! Everything!  
  
"Rinoa, stop..." she muttered, grabbing her head and falling to her knees.  
  
"YOU WON'T RUIN MY LIFE THIS TIME!!!"  
  
"... NO!" Saranie raised her head, as the hatred swarmed out of those cold green eyes, and igniting the flames on Rinoa and the dog. No, igniting the flames from the inside. Saranie watched, in neither pleasure or horror as Rinoa and her Angelo ignited from the inside out, and fell as only ashes in a matter of seconds. Rinoa's life and death... summarized in a matter of seconds.  
  
"..." Saranie stood up, catching the glimpse of a feather as it drifted down from nowhere and onto Rinoa's pile of ashes. She walked over, picking up the unscathed, unburned ring as it emitted the red aura.  
  
"Squall's aura..." it was unburned, because she had no wish to harm Squall, and anything that belonged to Squall, or anything Squall belonged to. This proved Squall was not Rinoa's, once and for all. Saranie stared at the feather as she struggled to remember lines of Hamlet "... Tis' the witching hour of night, in which church yards yawn and Hell itself breathes Contagion into the world. Now I could drink the hot blood and do the bitterest of deeds which the day would look on and quake... Thanks, Shakespeare..." she nodded, then walked off.  
  
**  
  
"ELLONE?!" Squall was shocked to see his sister wave at him from across the control room. The guards were tied up in the corner, and Fuijin and Raijin also at controls. Even more shocking, Shun was piloting at the very top.  
  
"Hi Squall!"  
  
"Hey, if it isn't the thunder from the planet down under! What are you doing on the ship?" Shun laughed.  
  
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THE SHIP!?" Squall asked, amazed.  
  
"Who is he?" Seifer asked, confused.  
  
"He's Saranie's lover, and your dad's, uh..."  
  
"Best friend. As for the Saranie part, your Saranie man. And not just figuratively, I mean after you get at that she owns every inch of you" Shun laughed "I umm... Well, you see, while I was activating at the bomb, and waiting for it to blow, this angel visited me... Call me stupid, but it looked like maybe how you'd imagine Saranie's mom would look! I mean, dead on Saranie and this guy, Seifer, right? Well, after that, I found myself outside of the building, just in time to watch the firework show of that building blowing up."  
  
**  
  
"So... Mariah is out and about saving people, huh?" Seifer asked as they anxiously awaited Saranie's return at the control room door.  
  
"Looks like it... Is she lost?" Squall asked.  
  
"I hope so... nothing should take Saranie this long..."  
  
It had been at least twenty minutes. Squall looked down, sighing "you don't think she'd...?"  
  
"Go after her alone?"  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
"No way!"  
  
There was suddenly a ruckus and the floor shook. Ellone came bounding out, shaking "it came from upstairs somewhere..."  
  
Seifer stood up, alarmed "UPSTAIRS!? No, not upstairs!!! That's where Cennaire is, and likely now Saranie!"  
  
"We're nearly docked, we can even see Rira flying around above land, so lets head up there and find out what's going on" Ellone nodded confidently.  
  
**  
  
Squall ran faster than he had ever remembered to the top of the air ship, to the conference room, followed by his sister and best friend. Cennaire, undoubtedly, was killing Saranie as they spoke. So, he'd rather not speak...  
  
He rammed into the door by hoping to push into it, but merely bounced off and came falling backwards, landing on Ellone and having Ellone tumble down like dominoes into Seifer. When the three landed like a sandwich of twenty year olds, Seifer moaned and then groaned, jumping up from the two siblings "It's pull you heroic dumbass!"  
  
"Oops..." Squall laughed at his mistake, jumping up and climbing up the tiny flight of stairs quickly, opening the door to a huge gust of wind. He witnessed a sight that is really indescribable.  
  
**  
  
Saranie stood in the middle of the room, her coat gone and even her tight clothes struggling to stay on in the force of the huge wind that engulfed her un-shielded face, as she let the hurricane force stream through her hair and now ungloved fingers. The background held a large orange hue, a beautiful hue, of flames and light, yet there was no heat in the room. In front of Saranie's face, roaring in pain at the blonde, was a head. Not any head, though. A phoenix's head. A beautiful bird's head, giant and the size of even Squall's own body, made entirely out of flame, with the same beautiful eyes that he knew Seifer to have so well. Unlike Saranie's, they were small, not wide and bright, yet small and lizard like, like Seifer's. The same eyes of engulf, of such a passion. It was so big, and yet so small too. It's roaring seemed to muster up a hurricane, but it's sadness withheld all fear. The un-burning flames all around the room helped Squall realize this bird was a ghost. It's neck and body covered the front part of the room, and it's wings of white yellow flame wrapped themselves around Saranie as though in the middle of embracing. The rest of the body was under the floor, like a ghost cut off in the middle of floorboard.  
  
Saranie's eyes were unmoved, as she slowly raised a hand and touched the bird's beak of flame softly, her eyes soft and lethargic "The soul that burns within me... Mariah..."  
  
Squall was too immersed in the sight that it took a moment for him to regain senses and encourage him to look around for Cennaire. Where was that sorceress? In the middle of the flame bird's head, between the eyes, was the enflamed body of a young woman in screaming. Cennaire. Squall realized why it didn't burn, because all of the heat was centered on the sorceress.  
  
"Squall, get Saranie!" screeched Seifer, in a worried tone.  
  
"... Huh? What!?"  
  
"Soon the sorceress will die, and after that the whole thing will explode! Come on, we gotta get out of here!!!"  
  
Squall stared in horror for a second, then dived into the cool flame, snatching up the young woman and making a run for the door again. He dived between the older man and woman and down the steps, landing on Saranie hard in an effort to make her come to her senses. No luck. The girl was lethargic in a way, a trance in her eyes as she still searched for that flame bird  
  
"Never mind that!" Seifer leapt agile to the bottom of the flight, picking up Saranie and turning, shooting off like a star down the hall, the two brown heads following. He broke down the door to the control room with lightening speed as a frightened Fuijin and Raijin and a cool yet worried Shun turned to him "What's goin' on!? Fuijin and I were scared witless!!!" Fuijin nodded, her old, old look back "SCARED!" Seifer shook his head "we're bustin out, right here!"  
  
Fuijin shook her head "NEGATIVE!!!"  
  
Seifer sighed, walking over and placing a hand on his lackey's shoulder "Fuijin... in less than a minute, this place will be blown to bits!"  
  
"WHAT!? AHH, YA KNOW!!!" Raijin panicked, picking up his chair, and in one sweep shattering the window.  
  
"Okay, Fuijin, you take Raijin! Shun, follow them I have to make sure that Ellone and Saranie and Squall are out all right!"  
  
The two nodded, saying goodbye and goodluck to their master and diving into the water, Shun just nodding at Squall and doing the same, making a swim for the beach that was less than a mile away now.  
  
"Seifer!" Ellone screeched, backing up as flames fell down the steps a stones throw away from the control room, starting to creep towards the room itself, as though sniffing out life.  
  
"Okay, Elle, you next" Seifer nodded, grabbing Ellone's hand and pulling her onto the shatter glass window.  
  
"No, Seifer... I have to stay with Squall! Make sure Fuijin and Raijin are safe, okay!?" Ellone nodded bravely, and then shoved a confused Seifer out of the window and into the water, where he reluctantly made a swim for sure.  
  
"Here, take Saranie, I'll fend off the flames!" Squall handed dazed maiden to his sister, who struggled to push the girl that was nearly her weight and twice her height to the window. As soon as she was on the top, there was a yell from behind them, as a door frame, now engulfed in flames, fell on the young man.  
  
As though a snap from hypnotism, Saranie was wide awake, looking around frantically "Squall?!"  
  
"Y- You go on Saranie! You have to live!" Squall choked on smoke.  
  
The blonde shook her head, turning and whistling loudly as the giant flaming cat tiger Rira, right on cue, came flying up to the window. Saranie snatched up Ellone's shirt, taking the woman and throwing her out the window on to the cat's back, who was immediately signaled to fly back to shore. Saranie then turned, rushing to Squall aid as she pushed all smoke and flames away from the man, creating a barrier around the two.  
  
She grabbed his hand, turning, just as the roof fell in on them from all sides, trapping the two.  
  
"We won't make it, Saranie..." Squall coughed, shaking his head.  
  
"..." She looked down as a rumble was felt below her feet. It was blowing up. She turned to Squall, tears in her eyes "I said I'd go out in a blast..."  
  
He smiled, leaning over and yanking up her hand, pulling her onto him and giving her a kiss that would make the Algae Eater fish turn green with Envy.  
  
**  
  
A soaked team watched as an airship collapsed into the ocean, in a blaze of a huge fire work. Raijin sat down, tears welling up in his eyes as all he could see was flame for a few moments. Shun sighed and looked down, yet still unhappily smiled, knowing that all destiny had fallen in it's place at some point. Fuijin fell onto Seifer's shoulder, struggling not to fall into a sobbing fit. Ellone collapsed on top of Rira's back, crying into the cat's fur. Rira lifted her head and gave such a howl that would make the prettiest blue bird, the softest nightingale, and the sauciest siren all weep themselves it was so beautiful.  
  
Seifer watched the sight with those green eyes of his, the green eyes that had once had a young brunette's blade past between them and had left it's trail as a scar, those green eyes that now will long for the only other exact pair that shone and was much brighter. Those green, green eyes that looked upon this scene, and wept two shiny, purple tears of witch power. The two tears fell to the ground and, in some way, crystallized into two jewels, bright and poison purple, in the middle of it a dark purple marble, which would stay on that dock until shore.  
  
**  
  
"Okay, so all is said and done, right? Oh, yeah, you want to know what happened to everybody after the whole thing..." Seifer smiled at you, the listener across from him.  
  
"Well, around a year later now, I'm now married to Fuijin, and still have Raijin, being the bum he is, living with us. Ellone and Shun, they're dating, and they're helping Aretha now make a theme park that includes Chocobo Racing of the greatest variety and games and such with cheap prices on some distant planet so that she can get back at her brother Dio...? Novato is now in business with Cid, and has a string of SeeD Gardens throughout Urone, the biggest of which I'm Headmaster of. Nanto and Rira are head SeeDs, and gun and, believe it or not, FIRE maniacs. Oh, and Raijin was traumatized by fire so much that he won't even allow candles on a birthday cake. Rinoa disappeared... huh. Quistis, Irvine, Zell, and Selphie all are Headmaster's too of Gardens throughout Urone. Oh, and Celbie... though least mentioned, she was the one who filled me in on all these gaps, so you could say she was one of the biggest parts. Celbie is now an Disguise Unit Head, or DUH-" Seifer laughs "and she, one of the main investigators at the scene of Cennaire's airship accident, says that Saranie Almasy and Squall Leonhart died that fateful day... But, will you believe anything that girl says?"  
  
**  
  
A black car zooms down a desert road, past a desert gas station, towards the city of Ore. A man and a woman adorned in black with sunglasses lean back in the leather seats, casual and bored looking yet happy to be that way. The woman moans, removing her sunglasses and popping out two contacts of blue eyes, revealing vibrant beautiful green eyes, and she shakes the Fruit Juice pink powder out of her hair to reveal a shining whitish gold. The man too takes off his sunglasses, and wipes the makeup off of a line that runs from one eye to under another, revealing a long scar, and he removes the black hat off of us head to reveal brunette hair.  
  
"Hey, S- I mean, Casey... How about a honeymoon, you know, to take up after where we left off in that hotel... around the point where the police barged in on us?" the man smiled, stroking the woman's cheek with a ring that had a jewel on it as a wedding ring, a bright and poison purple, in the middle of it a dark purple marble jewel.. 'Casey Kyles', or more now 'Casey Willis' leaned over and rubbed 'Marco Willis' cheek with a ring that had a jewel on it as a wedding ring, a bright and poison purple, in the middle of it a dark purple marble jewel "sure, why not... Scarface..."  
  
"Hmm... Glad we found these jewels on that dock..." "Yeah, we were soaked... and I suppose it's good to lay low, but I do miss our friends..." "Ehh... I'm liven' without em..." "Yeah, it's this driving thing I can't take... I do miss Rira... But, I suppose..." she leaned over, caressing his lips with her tongue "I have a new "Fierce Fuzzball..."  
  
(Hmm... Who are these two mysterious people that are so much like our hero and heroine? I can only wonder! Well, this looks like the end of a great saga... But, do I smell a sequel? Be on eye for "My White Oleander Outside") 


End file.
